Despite Nonstop Rains, Belize City Canals Didn’t Overflow

As we reported on Thursday of last week, there are two screw pumps at the Yarborough Pumping Station that are presently out of service.  An engineer from Landustrie, a European company that has been active in the water technology sector, is scheduled to arrive in Belize in the days ahead to determine and correct the problem with the recently installed piece of machinery.  News Five visited the facility on Monday and saw firsthand how the East and Southside canals are drained into the Caribbean Sea using the mechanical devices that have been installed at the station.  We also spoke with Chief Engineer Evondale Moody who explained that, notwithstanding the incessant rains over the weekend, neither of the two canals topped their banks.

On the phone: Evondale Moody, Chief Engineer, MIDH

“As you are aware, we have been having some intense rainfall since last week Thursday, I believe, over the entire country, specifically in the west and also the central district of Belize.  The pumping station, as we have it, should be able to pump the canals to the Caribbean Sea once it has topped the banks of the canal which are East Collet Canal and also the Southside Canal.  With the pumping station in place, the idea is that we would pump water from the canal to the Caribbean Sea.  With respect to the station that we have in place, there was no need for us to turn on those pumps because the canal did not top its banks.  So within the canal itself, you still had capacity for the waters to run off from the side drains, from the side streets into the canal.  That was being done naturally because we had low tide in some instances and from our inspection, we saw that the water was moving to the sea.  Yes, there was some flooding identified on some of the streets , specifically, I think Dean Street and King Street, however, those drains within those areas were full to capacity and that’s because they were trying to get to the East Collet Canal and also the one at Southside Canal.  From our vantage point and from our inspection, we saw that those canals still had sufficient capacity to carry the runoffs from those side drains.”