Drainage Project in Guyana

During my 5 week stay in Guyana, I worked with the Health Center in St.Cuthbert’s to implement drainage maintenance in part of the village. The population of the entire village of St.Cuthbert’s is 1500 people, and about 200 people live in subsidized housing called the “Scheme”. There are forty 500-square foot houses in the Scheme, each equipped with an out-house because there is no running water. The Scheme is on lower land and when it rains heavily, there is a lot of flooding, which causes land erosion. Mosquitoes that carry Malaria fester and thrive in dark standing water and poor sewage drainage adds to the soupy swamp which in turn can contaminate the entire area in the Scheme. Children are seen playing amongst these puddles and families tend to their gardens that feed their families. As you can probably see, this is a very significant health concern.

Standing water around houses can cause land erosion and health issues. I was delegated to take initiative and approach the people of the village with this issue. After visiting the Scheme and going from house to house, I realized that the only option to fix this problem was to dig and maintain deeper drains around every lot and create a main drain that leads out to the river down past the village. I met with a few people that knew the geography of the land, and we drew a map of the Scheme to figure out where the best place would be to dig a main drain . Since the houses were originally built, a drain was included with the construction, but over time erosion caused the drains to become almost non-existent. I also noticed that the drains were filled with garbage, such as empty bottles, papers, etc, which obstructs the water flow.

We had to act!

I facilitated a workshop explaining the cycle of good drainage, clean soil for gardens, and proper nutrition, which ultimately leads to good health. Only a few people came to the first meeting but the following week I encouraged more people to come out and start digging.

I created posters for my drainage project information session.
Soon after, I visited the Scheme every few days and found that more and more drains were being dug. I kept following up with the people to encourage them and reminded them why it is important to maintain their drains.

The beginnings of the drains dug around each lot in the scheme.
The biggest challenge of this project was keeping people motivated! A Drainage Committee was created in order to provide encouragement and ensure commitment to the project.

Before my departure, I was pleased to findout that 70% of the Scheme residents had dug their drains! I feel confident that the people will continue to work on their drains and I hope that it will be a sustainable project.

This experience has shown me that with commitment and a positive attitude, a community can work together to make a positive change!

-Kasia Wolowski, Youth Ambassador, Guyana 2011