Geologists still studying water puzzle

The source of this water is from somewhere underground. Kind of reminds of the Biblical account of some of the source of Noah's flood.

Geologists still studying water puzzle in Moneague
... six months on residents brimming with frustration
BY PATRICK FOSTER Sunday Observer Reporter
Sunday, January 08, 2006

THE Moneague area, comprising several small districts, was last subsumed by rising waters from the lake there in 1933; then the community was cut off for two months, after which life went back to normal.

Now 72 years on, in 2005, the same occurrence is replicated, but this time, the waters have stayed high for almost six months, some 40 homes and community businesses have disappeared under it, and geological experts say it has already reached 80 feet in some areas.

Basil Fernandez, managing director at the Water Resources Authority (WRA), said that there is uncertainty about when the water will crest. "While the rate has slowed, the water is still rising in the area," Fernandez told the Sunday Observer.

The WRA, he said, is still collecting data and so could offer no answers on when the water is likely to recede.
The health authorities also say the water is now toxic, having been contaminated by sewage seepage from underground pits.

Dislocated residents of Swamp, Collins Park, Clapham and Foreman's Hill, desperately seeking answers about their future, have formed themselves into an association to better communicate with the agencies and technical experts who are evaluating the Moneague lake.

"We have never had that sort of situation before and we hope that most of the victims will be compensated," said James Nunes, a resident of Swamp for more than 50 years, and member of the new citizens association.

The lands at Swamp are privately owned; most is inherited property. Like many rural communities, much of the populace is elderly and unable to start over on their own.

The residents, who want government to relocate them to state-owned lands, say the state agencies have been stone-walling.
Up to a week ago, they were still brimming with frustration.
"We don't want to demonstrate but it seems that our authorities only respond to that type of action," said Judith Solomon, head of the citizens association.

"We have people there who are over 80 years old with nowhere to go."
Nunes also told the Sunday Observer that most of the homes are owner-occupied, but that many property owners have no financial buffer for situations like this.

"Most of the people who live here never paid rent in their lives, and their houses are not insured," he said.

There is, however, a glimmer of hope for persons who developed their property with financial assistance from the National Housing Trust.
The state housing giant's insurance covers flooding, and a claim may be submitted by current NHT mortgagors.
Nunes gives his 'guesstimate' of the value of inundated property as $40 million.

"It is almost 300 acres of land that is under water," he said.
Inflatable dinghies provided by the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) remain the chief means of transport, despite a health ministry directive for persons to stay off the water because of its toxicity.

For residents of the Foreman's Hill, which is completely cut of by the floods, boats are the only feasible access to their homes.
"We don't want to withdraw the boats until there is an alternative in place," said ODPEM assistant director Ronald Jackson.

Swamp residents have become resigned to the loss of their homes, but are jittery about the future and increasingly agitated about what they say is the slow process of relocation and assistance, which was promised in meetings held with state officials.

"When it comes to relocating we are getting nowhere," said Nunes.
But the ODPEM says the residents will be assisted to procure new property.
The delay, according to Jackson, is in identifying an available site.
"Our biggest problem is to find adequate land in the hand of government," he said.

Negotiations have been initiated, he added, with the Commissioner of Lands, in whom crown property is vested.

And rental assistance for the dislocated is awaiting approval by the Ministry of Finance, But even when that allocation is made, said the disaster relief official, residents will be helped on a case by case basis.
"I appeal to my colleagues in the other agencies to move on what they have to do," said Jackson. "I understand the frustrations that the residents are facing."

The lake began rising at Moneague in July, more than a month into the hurricane season, after storm strength winds and rains lashed the island, and continued to swell with each rain in ensuing months.
Swamp has not been declared a disaster area by the authorities, which would have prioritised relief assistance for the community, but Jackson says the unusual event is not covered in the Disaster Management Act of 1993, under which the declaration would be made.

A new bill with wider powers is now being promulgated, he said.
Jackson points out that his agency was only one of several working in and with the Moneague communities, and that some bureaucratic delays were inevitable.

"There is a short, medium and long-term approach to the situation . it is not an ODPEM thing," he said. "A number of agencies will have to be involved."
In the short term, for instance, the National Works Agency has undertaken the cutting of a new road, he added.

Still, Nunes insists that the relief agency's explanation is untenable, saying his neighbours problems are immediate, and that some action is required now.

Some residents who moved into a vacant Public Works building, government property, in Moneague, have been asked to leave.
They were told not to get too comfortable there as the building was earmarked for a bus terminal, one resident told the Sunday Observer.
Jackson said, however, that the National Land Agency has stayed the eviction order for four weeks, on his request.