The rain in recent months has already caused problems at the Afobaka dam, north of the Brokopondo reservoir.
Paramaribo in particular is now being hit hard. Drainage systems are outdated, and pumping stations have too little capacity to cope with the heavy and prolonged rains.
According to Public Works Minister Nurmohamed, it may take some time before the problems are solved: “Dewatering is an expensive joke, but we are constantly cleaning canals and digging gutters in neighborhoods,” he tells NOS. “There is a plan with solutions to increase the pump capacity in particular, only because of the increasingly extreme rains and climate change we have to make more adjustments.”
The north of the city is also close to the sea, resulting in an additional risk of flooding. There are also some new allotment projects that do not yet have proper drainage. Certain streets in North Paramaribo are also lower, so the water will remain if the pump is not pumped quickly. The problem is that there are not enough financial resources to increase the capacity of the pumps and create drainage points in the allotment projects, says Nurmohamed, “while the urgency is increasing”.
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