Reddy: More Work To Arrest Flooding

River morphology plays an important role in flood management, says the Min­ister for Waterways Mahendra Reddy.

“And it is of utmost importance that we continue our work to en­sure that the maximum discharge capacity of the river is maintained through rehabilitative mainte­nance works,” he said.

Mr Reddy made the comments in Rakiraki on Wednesday afternoon while marking the completion of the Nakauvadra Creek desilting works which cost $1.3 million.

The works carried out will arrest flooding issues in Rakiraki Town, where the business community have incurred millions of dollars in loss due to floods over the years.

“It is important that when we talk about rivers and creeks, we need to understand that these rivers and creeks are dynamic,” Mr Reddy said.

“Given its dynamic nature, we need to ensure that we are mind­ful of our activities along the river banks so that these rivers and creeks have ‘enough room’ to dis­charge maximum water.”

Mr Reddy showed his apprecia­tion to the people of Rakiraki for putting up with flooding issues over the past years.

“Your resilience is remarkable. I further appreciate your co-oper­ation and understanding during the works phase and congratulate all of you on the successful com­pletion of the Nakauvadra River Channel Improvement Works,” he told the Ra residents.

He said flooding of the Nakau­vadra Creek had in the past caused a lot of difficulties for communi­ties living in and around the area.

To overcome the problem, the Ministry of Waterways and Envi­ronment decided to carry out the Nakauvadra River Channel Im­provement Works to improve the discharge associated with the peak flows.

The necessary surveys and due diligence were carried out by MoWE engineers and the neces­sary design was formulated to ar­rest the flooding woes of Rakiraki Town.

Edited by Percy Kean

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