Chairman of the San Juan/Laventille Regional Corporation Alderman Nafeesa Mohammed said yesterday work in the corporation's district is limited because of the cut in its budget.She was speaking at the commemoration of International Women's Day yesterday at the Laventille Community Centre."Our developmental budget has been cut by $4 million and we had to make adjustments. There is a flooding issue and we are in the dry season and we would like to take care of the problem during this time," she said.
Mohammed said local government needed to be able to take care of the communities and have adequate funding."Local government is the link to bring it to the communities and parties should see that adequate resources are necessary to bring meaningful change," she said.
However, Mohammed said, the corporation was attempting to take care of problems with allocated resources.She added: "112 people were hired to do URP work on the Beetham. Why didn't they give the money to the corporation because we have the equipment? Let us recruit and tackle the issue. We are responsible." she said.
Mohammed said there was a drainage issue and various areas suffered from flooding during the rainy season."Our developmental work has been restricted and unemployment is the biggest challenge in the region. We want our ability to help when the time now is needed more than ever. Our allocation could have helped to hire people," she added.
During yesterday's programme, Red Initiative spoke about the issues of HIV/Aids and other sexually-transmitted diseases.Lucie Larose held an introductory workshop on non-violent communication.