Officials at the Ministry of Works are responding to claims that flooding the occurred in Abaco over the weekend after torrential rain was made worse by malfunctioning drains.
Ministry of Works Senior Engineer, Dexter Williams told ZNS News the flooding was due to high tide and not clogged drains. He said, “that outfall is fitted to that tide flex valve and then when you have the high tide the water will come over that outfall and impede the flow. So what happened during that heavy rain that outfall was blocked by the tide and then because of that, and of course there are some drains the wells that are not clean, that would take some of the water but not all. So you’d still have the flooding because of the high tide.”
The Ministry of Works has a dispatched a team to Abaco and are in talks with a contractor to carryout works on the drainage system. According to Williams a drain study is needed in Marsh Harbour to determine where to redirect water. He said, “so it’s not that we’ve forgotten or neglected them but it’s going through the system and the rain came before it was able to complete its course through the system.”
