Govt floats $100m to curb flooding

Local Government Minister Chandresh Sharma says $100 million will be spent in the next two months to help solve T&T’s flooding problems. Sharma made the statement yesterday at a press conference to announce his ministry’s programme to clean and improve drainage across the country to reduce flooding, at the ministry’s office at Kent House, Maraval.  “A lot of the waterways are clogged by old mattresses, plastic bottles and debris...As result, water cannot get into the rivers and out to sea,” he said. “The project is very ambitious and over the next eight weeks, we will attempt to clean every one of these that are blocked.”

He said global trends showed that Trinidad would be affected by flooding and heavy rainfall later this year and that the global standard for the improvement of drainage is for it to be done every five years.
He announced that silt and other blockages would be removed from tributary rivers and waterways under the purview of his minister, while the Ministry of Works and Transport would maintain the major rivers across the country.

Sharma says the programme, which begins on Tuesday, is a collaboration among his ministry, the Works and Transport and  Food Production, Land and Marine Affairs ministries. He said more than 30,000 employees of state companies would be working on the project, including employees of the Community-Based Environmental Protection and Enhancement Programme (CEPEP), Unemployment Relief Programme (URP) and all regional corporations.