Ghut-cleaning will no longer be seasonal but will be done year-long
Acting Director of the Public Works Department, Jeremy Hodge
While noting that a major ghut-cleaning exercise was undertaken before the arrival of Tropical Storm Isaias on Tuesday, Acting Director of the Public Works Department, Jeremy Hodge said ghut-cleaning will now be a year-long effort.
In an interview with BVI News, Hodge said the most recent clearing exercise did not only involve the mainland Tortola, but also the sister islands of Jost Van Dyke and Virgin Gorda.
“We spent one week on Virgin Gorda and Jost Van Dyke where the main branch Tortola subsidised their crews with more manpower and equipment. For those weeks the sister islands teams worked together to get the job done ahead of the weathers.”
“On Tortola we have been and continued cleaning up until today (Wednesday, July 29). Ghut and drain cleaning will be a year-round exercise and no longer seasonal. Moving forward, you can expect to see sister island teams working together to keep our roadways maintained,” he added.
Usually effective against flooding
In the meantime, areas on the mainland whose ghuts were cleared before the arrival of the storm included East End, Purcell Estate, Road Town, Sea Cows Bay and Pockwood Pond.
“Cleaning will be continuous. Northside, we intend to address following the [emancipation] holidays,” he stated.
BVI News also quizzed the Acting Director of Public Works how effective ghut-cleaning actually is against major flooding in the territory.
He replied: “Under normal circumstances, clearing drains and ghuts is a very effective exercise to mitigate flooding in vulnerable areas. However, in unprecedented circumstances – such as the 2017 August floods – we can only do our best then hope and prayer for the best outcome possible.”
Above-average hurricane season predicted
The 2020 Atlantic Hurricane Season has been predicted by the researches at the Colorado State University to be an above-average season, with 16 named storms expected to affect the region.
These researchers are predicting that eight will go on to become major hurricanes with categories of three, four and five strengths and winds of 111 miles per hour in some cases.
Eight named tropical storms and one hurricane have developed since the start of the season.
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What a farce! Chopping some brush and otherwise trees and plants that added beauty to the surroundings around the gut in VG is gut cleaning? Well. This territory will soon be broke.
A bunch of non thinking ? dingbats making the decisions.
stop the damn talking and go out and clean the ghut you have 2 eyes to the nastiness going on.
What happen to the men at PWD who go out and play dominoes and drink all day. It would be good if they are put to clean the ghuts on a regular basis.
As a non-self-governing territory, the VI under UN charter is entitled to self-determination, including independence, free association, mergers, associated statehood………etc. The UK cannot stop the VI from pursuing independence if the majority of Virgin Islanders so desire. The people should determine through a referendum if they want independence or some other political status.
The VI sister OT Bermuda held an independence referendum on 16 August 1995; Bermudians voted 74% in favor of staying an OT. On 7 November 2002, Gibraltar voters voted overwhelmingly in a referendum to reject shared sovereignty rule by the UK and Spain. On 15 September 2014, Scotland voted in a referendum to stay part of the UK. The VI needs to settle the independence anxiety by holding a referendum. Independence question settled, the territory needs to laser focus on its continued growth, development and sustainability.
Moreover, though the VI is entitled to pursue political independence, in my opinion, the VI needs to attain some relative economic independence before pursuing political independence. Further, the VI has a myriad of challenges it must address before independence,eg, social, institution, environmental, economical, political………etc. In the interim, the VI needs to pursue more autonomy.
Ops! Response to wrong commentary .
Give it a rest. Surely you must have something more interesting to do with your time than bang on about independence.
How about giving us some independence from your mianing.
Yesterday them waited til the storm was just off virgin gorda to start cleaning the ghuts in roadtown and eastend
I said the same thing in east end right by the police station all in the rain storm done coming n thats when we going start cleaning the ghuts our gov. Is taking us for fools and they need to do alot better… we the PPL OF THE BVI NEED START TAKE ACTIONS N START PULLING THESE TYPE OF NON SENSE UP WE VOTE N WE HAVE A VOICE TOO!!!
The start of hurricane season is the same date every year and about 2 months later the Gov start telling us to prepare and when a storm is on us they prepare. That tell you anyting about Gov in the VI. They may need oversight!!!! On this as well as who they share the money with.
Governments the world over employ poor inspection and maintenance practices of its buildings, utilities, infrastructure…….etc. To get the design life, reliability and functionality from facilities, they must be inspected and maintained religiously on a periodic schedule. If you own it, you must inspect and maintain it. Don’t expect what you don’t inspect.
Failure to effectively maintain facilities, manifests in premature failure, higher operational cost, lost of services, shorten life cycles, shorter replacement cost…….etc. Moreover, though governments struggle to effectively maintain what they own, they invariably push to build more, adding to their already large inventory of poorly maintained facilities.
The drainage utility/infrastructure, eg, ghuts,inlets, manholes, catch basins, drainage lines, bridges, culverts, road side ditches ………etc should be a put on at an at least quarterly structured inspection and maintenance schedule. Additionally, ghuts should be inspected after a major rain event; this must be a standard operating practice.
How about people being to used the garbage bin? Stop tossing mattresses, Stove, TV and furniture set into the guts? 90% of the time is issue with the guts if due to the results of litter bugs.
Blame the Island people and Spanish community and Spanish community . They are the ones to blame.
Yeah. Blame every one that is not to blame!!
and you are the biggest bugs lier
Taking the non violent inmates that is sitting around doing nothing all day on the tax payers dime to clean up the ghuts and other areas of the BVI.
Clean drains in Baugherst Bay please
Sorry.Hurricane season does not start until June next year when the Gov hopes to have a program to clean gut ready for hurricane season. Signed All Govs ever!!