HGP Nightly News – Private Engineer Patrice Jacobs is advocating for a major technological overhaul of Georgetown’s drainage network, warning that the city’s traditional flood control system is becoming increasingly inadequate in the face of modern challenges.
Presenting a proposal for the automation of the city’s sluices, Jacobs argued that Georgetown can no longer rely solely on a drainage model that depends heavily on gravity and manual operation.
“The gravity system, as we know it, has done its best while it lasted,” Jacobs said. “But as we continue to evolve as a city, we find that the drainage system is woefully inadequate.”
The engineer explained that many of Georgetown’s drainage structures still require operators to manually open and close sluice gates based on tidal movements, a process that leaves little room for error.
“Whenever the manual system fails, there’s an opportunity missed for draining the system,” he said. “We want to move to the point where we can have an automated system that would work regardless of whether the human is there or not.”
Jacobs stressed that the proposal is not intended to eliminate human oversight entirely but rather to reduce dependence on manual intervention during critical periods.
The warning comes as Georgetown continues to grapple with flooding concerns linked to urban expansion, changing rainfall patterns and climate-related pressures.
According to Jacobs, the city’s historical drainage infrastructure was designed for a very different Georgetown.
Many of the canals that once acted as natural storage areas for excess water have since been filled in to facilitate development.
“As the city developed, those canals were lost,” he explained, noting that this significantly reduced the system’s capacity to absorb and store stormwater during periods of intense rainfall.
The Engineer also pointed to the growing impact of climate change and rising sea levels on Georgetown’s drainage capabilities.
“The situation will not change unless we do something different in terms of how we manage the flood system,” Jacobs warned.
He referenced studies showing that Georgetown’s drainage network is capable of handling approximately 5.5 millimetres of rainfall per hour, while recent weather events have far exceeded that capacity.
“If you have that amount of rainfall, there’s no way the existing system will be able to manage it,” he stated.
Under the proposed automated model, sensors would continuously monitor water levels in canals and outfalls, automatically opening sluice gates when conditions are favourable for drainage and closing them when tides rise.
Jacobs said one of the biggest advantages of automation is that it removes delays caused by human error or absence.
“You wouldn’t lose 15 minutes because an attendant goes to sleep, or he was cooking, or he was drunk,” he said while explaining the potential benefits of the system.
The proposed technology would operate around the clock and remain on standby to respond immediately when drainage opportunities arise.
“It’s going to open automatically, and it’s going to close automatically based on sensors,” Jacobs explained. “It’s going to run 24 hours a day.”
While no final decision has been made on implementation, Jacobs said Georgetown must begin exploring modern solutions if it hopes to keep pace with future development and increasingly unpredictable weather patterns.
For a city that sits below sea level and remains heavily dependent on drainage infrastructure, the proposal could mark one of the most significant changes to flood management in decades.
