For the past few newscasts, we've shown you the distress that the countrywide floods from Hurricane Iota have been causing Belizeans after the days-long torrential rain finally eased up on Monday.
All that water must find its way from the inland areas of the country to the coast, via the rivers and other major waterways. One concerned citizen living near the Hattieville-Boom road is reporting tonight that the entire community of the Ridge Lagoon Estate, which is made up of approximately 16 families, is being inconvenienced by one family which lives across the road from them. He says that this family is attempting to solve their flood issues by pumping that water out of their property across the road. All that water is spilling into the Ridge Lagoon Community and worsening their flooding.
This evening, this concerned citizen granted us a telephone interview to explain what exactly is happening:
Voice of Concerned Citizen
"The area around here called Ridge Lagoon Estate" - the last time we had seen flooding like this was in 2007 or 2008 when the entire country was flooded, so when we saw that flood in Cayo we expected it to reach here eventually. It was raising gradually like an half inch and hour over the past 2-3 days and we were preparing ourselves for it and then this morning I realize that across the street where there is a building establishment I realize they brought in an excavator and they dammed off a culvert which runs under the street which connects their property to a pond that's in Ridge Lagoon. That pond then connects to a canal which runs to the river. Over the past two weeks with all the rains that were coming down, their side was flooded and so what I notice this morning they took an excavator and they blocked off the culvert so that the water from this side would not go over there and then they connected a industrial water pump and started to pump out the water from that side of the road onto our side and the water started to raise like an inch to two inches an hour. Right now we are probably have about almost a foot or over a foot of water over the entire neighborhood. The flood is affecting everybody."
According to this concerned resident, who asked not to be named, the community raised their complaint with the offending family, and that late this evening, they discontinued their pumping operations. He is concerned that this family may restart their flood pumping if there is no regulatory action taken to stop them.
