Floating homes in the Mazaruni

MR. AND MRS. RALPH POLLARD HAVE LOST THEIR BUSINESS IN THE
ONGOING FLOODS AND WERE FORCED TO TRANSFORM THEIR BOAT INTO A
MAKESHIFT HOME to survive the current crisis in the Mazaruni in Region Seven
(Cuyuni/Mazaruni).
The joint business owners said this is the worst flood they have experienced in their many years
in the business there.
The male Pollard said the deluge have devastated the community.
His wife said when she arose from sleep, she was horrified to witness her stocks in the business
“floating away” in rapidly rising flood waters.
“It just washed away,” she recalled.
“Rice, sugar, flour, we couldn’t save anything. Everything was lost and we were forced to come
and sleep in this boat. We are forced to bathe, do everything in this boat and it is very
uncomfortable,” Mrs. Pollard told www.aroundtheregions.com.
“All we beds float away, everything float! we want ya’all (you all) to go into the building so that
you can see for yourselves as we don’t want nobody feel that we just talking. All the freezers in
water as the water just rushed in is just like that overnight. Drums of diesel have floated away,
drums as we see it floating away but we just can’t go after it as it was night,” the businesswoman
remembered.

The Pollards were not the only businessowners ravaged by the exceptionally severe flooding.
Mrs. Pollard is now worried how she will honour her instalments to the bank.

“I owe the bank and I want to know when I would be able to pay. The government needs to assist
in some way or the other. This (flood) waters catch us off guard so all of us lost things. We never
expected it to rise to this level as we never saw it like this before,” she recalled.
She appealed for help from the government, admitting that they are unable to get back on their
feet “by ourselves.
She is also cautioning speed boat operators to be cautions, reminding them of some residents
now forced to live in ‘floating homes’
“We would like the boat captains passing here to do so at a normal rate, with caution and with
ease knowing that the waves that they leave behind cause plenty of damage. Even though we
would try to put things that will not float, it can lift it up and capsize everything and you would
be unable to capture everything that is going out stream as they float away,” she counselled.
“When the boats passed here, they have no regard for these shops on the landing. They see
the situation that we are in, they are passing at a rate and the waves can throw down the
buildings (boats) and it could throw you off and these things ain’t right. So, these are the
things that we are going through in the Mazaruni river,” the Pollards reminded.