New drainage works will keep city drier

If you’re one of those people who’ve been feeling like every time something is done to the streets of Belize City, along comes another group of people who dig them right back up again, trust us, you’re not alone. Well today, one of our news teams has an explanation for at least some of the road works taking place around the city.

Janelle Chanona, Reporting

As even an irregular visitor to Belize City can tell you, it doesn’t take much to flood the streets. The latest drainage improvements started in 1999, after the scare from Hurricane Mitch, and have actually survived two other serious storms. With the project near its end, the Prime Minister and other ministers of government were today given a tour of its progress.

Wayne Williams, Project Engineer, Bz. City Drainage Works

“We found out that during Mitch we still had some blocking, although the system was working very well, the water wasn’t flowing off.”

According to project engineer Wayne Williams, the project is financed by central government, but supervised by the City Council. There are eight sites under construction in both the north and south sides of the city.

This drainage site near the main fire station in the B.E.C. layout complex is designed to link the Princess Margaret/West Landivar area with the Haulover Creek.

Wayne Williams

“The idea was to continue it all the way out to the. Studies are still being done on this specific area, because since it is so low, we don’t know if it’s will work.”

Already, one canal just behind the St. John’s Junior College is being pegged as the role model.

Wayne Williams

“This is what we want to achieve with the whole canal system within the city. I think one of the confusion that people have when we talk about canal is that it is used for dumping garbage. Basically, it is used for drainage and if we can put together the maintenance plan and implement it, this should be the result.”

But that doesn’t mean things have flowed smoothly with all the drains. At the canal behind the Administration building on Mahogany Street, residents will have to make considerable adjustments to their normal routine.

Wayne Williams

“This project didn’t allocate for bridges and we already have some problems. There are two residents in Trench Town that don’t have access. The only access is over the canal, and no bridge is going there.”

In some areas, construction has yet to begin. Digging at the Junesville canal starts on the nineteenth of this month.

Wayne Williams

“This canal is going to join from Trench Town canal to Haulover Creek, all the way to another canal, which is an extension of the Administration Building canal. This also joins the Partridge Street Canal, which goes all the way to North Creek canal. With this canal now on the south side, we can see the network which we are creating, since we not only have this canal in the middle draining this section through the Haulover Creek, but we also have it draining towards the sea at some point. It goes Partridge Street, North Creek canal, Collet canal, out into the sea.”

With the ongoing construction sites already seen as a hindrance and bother to many people, Belize City Mayor David Fonseca hopes the public will see that all these problems will eventually bring about progress.

David Fonseca, Belize City Mayor

“The City Council is sure that with these improved and additional infrastructures, the drainage in Belize City will improve dramatically. The council has also included in its proposed 2002-2003 capital budget projections, to improve a number of secondary drains that are connected to these existing canals and build that should connect to the new ones. I take this opportunity to say thanks to our citizens in the city for working along with us during this period of construction and have put up with all the inconveniences in their communities.”

Reporting for News 5, I am Janelle Chanona.

The drainage works project is slated to be completed by October of this year. Construction work at the drainage sites is being done by Cisco Construction and Johnston International Limited.