Georgetown, Guyana — (November 4, 2024) His Excellency President Dr Irfaan Ali has assembled a multi-agency team to develop the Georgetown Drainage Development Plan, aimed at expanding and improving the city’s drainage system.
During a meeting at the Office of the President today, the Head of State noted that the team has been tasked with developing and implementing an action plan comprising immediate, short-, medium-, and long-term goals to enhance the city’s drainage infrastructure.
He said the intention is not only to improve and expand the city’s drainage to cater for the massive transformation, development, and expansion currently underway, but also to improve the capability and capacity of the city to deal with broader issues, including parking and beautification.
The President said the team is equipped with the existing drainage plan and will use that, along with other data, to modernise the process.
“We’re going to create a new drainage plan and schematic of the city’s drainage using modern tools that are before us—modern satellite imagery. We have data from the LIDAR surveys. We have other software that will be superimposing what is on the ground to give us a strong assessment as to the most optimal solution for each of the drains, whether it’s the main, primary, secondary, or tertiary drains.”
The plan will also identify hotspots and factors creating challenges in certain areas.
“Immediately, we will start with the clearing and levelling of all parapets throughout the city, because what we have found is that many are overgrown or encumbered by bridges and other kinds of obstructions.”
The President noted that for some areas, there are specific plans which include the clearing of alleyways and drains.
“One of the things that many cities around the world have done successfully is to create monetising frameworks with drainage. What I mean is that in some of the main drainage areas, we can design covered draining that corporations and companies can pay a fee and use for parking. So, we’re looking at the entire ecosystem in a holistic way to arrive at optimal solutions.”
He said that in addition to the massive and extensive drainage works, his Government is also pursuing the modernisation of the city’s sewer system. This will be done in collaboration with Guyana Water Inc.
“We’re starting with Georgetown, but we are looking at the drainage system for all organised areas, and this is part of the priority under the Low Carbon Development Strategy.”
President Ali noted that in suburban and rural areas, there is already an elaborate drainage plan.
“We’re building out all of these Hope-like canals, investing in close to maybe 60 pump stations—mobile and fixed—rehabilitating all of the outfalls, and also improving the drainage systems in agricultural areas and other communities across the country.”
The team will conduct a series of consultations commencing on Monday, 10 November 2025, and continuing for three weeks.
The multi-agency team comprises the Minister of Housing, the Honourable Collin Croal; the Minister within the Ministry of Housing, the Honourable Vanessa Benn; Head of the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission, Enrique Monize; Head of the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority, Lionel Wordsworth; City Engineer, Colvern Venture; Solid Waste Manager from the Georgetown City Council, Walter Narine; and Chief Sea and River Defence Officer, Kevin Samad, among other stakeholders.