CITCO: Construction, garbage caused floods

On Thursday, a downpour of as much as five inches of rain left huge sections of Belize City underwater, and more than one resident asking, isn’t there a multi-million dollar project in the works to solve the drainage problem? But as Froylan Alvarado, Senior Town Planner with the Belize City Council explains, collectively, we are the spanner in the works.

Froylan Alvarado, Senior Town Planner

“A lot of people we have don’t really care. They do development, and while they’re filling up their land they’re filling up the drains. Another thing we’re contemplating is we have a maintenance system whereby we address all culvert outlets to the sea and major canals four times for a year. Just before, during and after the hurricane season, we blow out all the culverts. What we have found out is that in some cases, garbage has piled up underneath these culverts, and siltation, which is a natural occurrence, has blocked these culverts as well, so we are addressing a lot of the problems.”

According to Alvarado, phase three of the project, will include building a canal on Faber’s Road to drain off the south side and the installation of cemented surface drains to help solve the problem.