Guyana
USAID Provides Needed Response
To Help Flood-Torn Guyana Rebuild
Last December, Guyanese weren’t looking to see what
the New Year would bring as much as what the New Year would
bring an end to.
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A young Guyanese boy hauls a load of
supplies on his shoulders amid torrential rains that
flooded substantial portions of the country. USAID responded
to the crisis with emergency relief in the form of medical
supplies, food and water pumping equipment. (Photo by
USAID – Guyana)
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December was the beginning of an extraordinarily heavy rainy
season that severely flooded Guyana’s three main administrative
regions that encompass 75 percent of the country’s population.
The rains continued through early February, leaving several
villages four to five feet underwater. As the situation worsened,
poor drainage threatened the collapse of a major dam, and
5,600 Guyanese were evacuated to emergency shelters, many
of them in schools. Most transportation and communications
were wiped out. USAID estimates that 12 people died of leptospirosis,
a bacterial disease that breeds in contaminated water. Another
112 people were treated and released at Georgetown Hospital.
In response, USAID provided nearly $1 million in assistance,
initially in the form of emergency relief items (e.g., temporary
shelter materials, medical supplies, and food). Subsequent
assistance followed with water pumps, boats, and marine engines
to clear drainage canals. Additional USAID grants to Pan American
Health Organization and United Nations Children’s Fund
helped with clean-up activities and disease-monitoring efforts.
“The USAID flood assistance package was a major factor
that helped reverse the state of emergency that existed in
Guyana’s most populated regions,” said Adolfo
A. Franco, assistant administrator for USAID for Latin America
and the Caribbean. The emergency relief items helped several
thousand people in the affected areas stay relatively dry
and healthy. Meanwhile, boats and marine engines played a
critical role in transporting emergency aid to communities
isolated by the flooding, while the pumps helped to decrease
water levels, especially along the coast.
“An estimated 32,000 people in Guyana were stranded
without access to assistance during the flood,” Franco
said. “Now several months later, we are still helping
to restore a sense of normalcy for many Guyanese.”
Communities affected by the January-February flooding are
nearly fully recovered, but more recent rains have occurred
and have postured the Government of Guyana to remain in a
state of high alert to the possibility of future flooding.
The government is currently working with dozens of firms to
clean out and repair flood control ditches and canals, and
continues to use the USAID boats, marine engines, and pumps
to ensure that water levels throughout the coastal regions
remain at acceptable levels.
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