Over 400 residents affected by flooding at Grove after koker collapses

Residents living on the north-west of the Grove community on the East Bank of Demerara are affected by severe flooding after a koker at the Grove Market Street collapsed at about 17:00h on Wednesday.

The breach occurred as a result of the current spring tide leading to eight inches of water in the affected area, however, the water level is increasing.

Heman Ramphal, a Councillor at the Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) told the News Room via telephone that the seal on the koker broke but emergency works will be undertaken to fix the problem.

“They’re doing remedial works, in other words, they’ll put some planks at the front of the koker and the back of the koker and then take out the koker and build back a new door,” he explained.

This is expected to be completed before 3am when the next high tide is expected.

He said the next low tide is expected at 11pm and at that time, engineers will begin letting out water using a koker which is beside the broken one.

The area was on Wednesday evening visited by Prime Minister Brigadier (ret’d) Mark Phillips who has responsibility for the Civil Defence Commission, Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha, Public Works Ministers Juan Edghill and Deodat Indar and Local Government Minister Nigel Dharamlall.