By Marvin Cato | HGP Nightly News|
GEORGETOWN, GUYANA — Warning that the capital city’s traditional flood control mechanisms are becoming increasingly inadequate to protect residents, private engineer Patrice Jacobs is advocating for a major technological overhaul to automate Georgetown’s aging drainage network.
Presenting a comprehensive, locally developed technical proposal to the Mayor and City Council (M&CC), Jacobs argued that Georgetown can no longer safely rely on a centuries-old drainage model that depends entirely on gravity and manual human operations. Currently, the city’s network relies on localized koker (sluice) attendants to physically open and close massive wooden gates based on shifting, twice-daily tidal movements in the Demerara River—a vulnerable process that leaves zero margin for human error.
“The gravity system as we know it has done its best while it lasted,” Jacobs told city councilors during his brief. “But as we all know, as we continue to evolve as a city, we find that the drainage system is woefully inadequate. The challenge is that we continue to be a city that is below the coastal line.”
Jacobs emphasized that his proposed automatic koker management system is not designed to eliminate human oversight or municipal monitoring entirely, but rather to eliminate devastating delays during critical weather events. The automated system would utilize water-level sensors and computerized controllers installed on both the canal and outfall sides of each sluice gate, opening and closing the barriers automatically 24/7 based on real-time data. This would maximize precious low-tide drainage windows and prevent sudden seawater backflow if an attendant is asleep, absent, or delayed by severe weather.
“We want to move to a point where we can have an automated system that would work regardless of whether the human is there or not,” Jacobs explained. “However, we would never attempt to propose a system which will totally emulate human intervention.”
The structural engineer referenced historical hydrological data showing that Georgetown’s primary gravity drainage network was mathematically designed to handle a maximum of approximately 5.5 millimeters of rainfall drainage per hour. By contrast, recent climate-driven storms over the coastal plain have routinely unleashed deluge levels of 17, 21, and up to 24.2 millimeters per hour, completely overwhelming the city’s 10 main sluices and 12 supporting pumps.
Compounding the intense pressure from climate change and rising sea levels, Jacobs pointed to unregulated, rapid urban expansion as a massive secondary driver of localized flash flooding. He noted that as developers build out commercial zones, property owners are systematically paving over their yards and green spaces, directing massive, instant volumes of surface runoff straight into the municipal street drains.
While the Mayor and City Council have taken the automatic koker proposal under advisement, no final fiscal decision has been made regarding city-wide implementation. However, Jacobs warned that unless municipal authorities aggressively transition away from manual interfaces and adopt data-driven engineering solutions, the capital’s structural flood risks will continue to rapidly degrade alongside Guyana’s historic economic growth.
