HGP Nightly News – Georgetown Mayor Alfred Mentore is calling for a more organised and coordinated national response to flooding, arguing that the current approach is too reactive and falls short of what is needed as the country heads deeper into the rainy season. In commenting on the recent flooding and the public response that followed, the Mayor said government must move beyond after-the-fact assessments and instead put systems in place that allow authorities to prepare for and manage these events in a more structured way.
According to Mentore, the recent flooding should be treated as a warning sign that stronger planning is urgently needed. He said that while several officials, including ministers, were seen going into affected areas after the flooding occurred, that kind of response does not address the underlying issue. In his view, reacting only after communities have already been impacted amounts to a poor use of time and resources and does little to prevent a repeat of the same problems.
The Mayor said what is needed now is a general national plan for the rainy period, supported by a task force that brings together central government, municipalities, the city, towns and Neighbourhood Democratic Councils. He argued that flooding and drainage issues cannot be effectively handled in isolation and that all relevant stakeholders need to be involved in shaping the response. According to Mentore, a national task force would allow those bodies to work through the issues collectively and develop practical solutions for how to deal with them going forward.
He also stressed that local democratic organs must be part of that process, including councillors, mayors, deputy mayors, chairpersons and other key representatives. In his view, those officials are directly connected to the communities being affected and should have a voice in planning and decision-making. He said bringing those parties together would help generate ideas, identify weaknesses and improve the way authorities respond to flooding across the country.
Mentore was particularly critical of what he described as an ad hoc and disjointed approach to dealing with matters affecting the state, the city and municipalities. He argued that this kind of response should not be accepted as the norm and said more should be expected from the government in terms of leadership, planning and inclusion. For the Mayor, a more holistic response that involves all stakeholders and places all hands on deck is necessary if Guyana is to improve how it handles recurring flooding and related challenges.
