A drainage au­thor­i­ty is com­ing in the new fis­cal year, says Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of the En­vi­ron­ment and Wa­ter Re­source Ra­mona Ram­di­al. The MP for Cou­va North was speak­ing at a tree-plant­i­ng ex­er­cise at the T&T Crick­et Board's Na­tion­al Crick­et Cen­tre at Bal­main, Cou­va, on Wednes­day. She said the drainage au­thor­i­ty would be in charge of over­see­ing all the ad­min­is­tra­tive process­es to en­sure wa­ter­cours­es re­main clear through­out the year.

Ram­di­al said her min­istry was geared for any sur­pris­es as the rainy sea­son in­ten­si­fies. She said emer­gency equip­ment have al­ready been placed at all re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tions and at the Of­fice of Dis­as­ter Pre­pared­ness (ODPM) to deal with flood­ing. She said the new fi­nan­cial year should see the com­ing on­stream of plans to mit­i­gate flood­ing which in­clude wa­ter har­vest­ing and re­ten­tion ponds. Speak­ing about the tree-plant­i­ng ex­er­cise, Ram­di­al said it was one that should be em­u­lat­ed by both gov­ern­men­tal and non-gov­ern­men­tal or­gan­i­sa­tions to boost the en­vi­ron­ment.