worsened the situation as a result of poor maintenance. Public Works Minister Stephen Tsang announced a series of emergency measures and a structural approach to address the flooding issue. He explained that multiple flood gates were not operational due to problems with electricity. Many precious hours during which the water could have been pumped out of the affected areas were wasted as a result of the problems at the Energy Company Suriname (EBS). Workers from the Public Works Ministry were deployed to get the flood gates up and running. In the southern part of Paramaribo residents who were tired of waiting for somebody to operate the flood gate decided to open it by force but their actions only worsened the problem because they broke the lock which is why the flood gate van no longer be opened. Minister Tsang deemed the incident regrettable because many hours were wasted and because the flood gate has to be repaired before it can be used. He explained that Suriname is not only confronted with extreme rainfall but that its maintenance program was neglected for many years. The main channels and ditches have not been dug out for many years. Tsang emphasized that his ministry had dug out the main channels and ditches but that its efforts were not enough to tackle the rain that had been predicted by the Weather Service. He reminded people that it has been predicted that there will be more heavy rainfall in the next couple of days. Meanwhile the Public Works Ministry has held an emergency meeting with the district commissioners, the National Coordination Center for Disaster Control (NCCR), the Weather Service and the Wet Infrastructure Division to discuss a plan aimed at handling the flooding issue.