Chaguanas Mayor Gopaul Boodhan said a handful of inconsiderate people are making life miserable for thousands of citizens in Chaguanas. Boodhan visited flood-stricken areas in Endeavour and Cunupia yesterday.
He said some people have encroached on the reserved lands on riverbanks to squat or extend their properties, and doing so made it difficult and even impossible for crews from relevant State agencies to maintain watercourses.
The mayor was also disgusted to see large quantities of garbage and debris clogging up watercourses.
He said the Town and Country Division of the Ministry of Planning had never given any person or business permission to build on the river bank. Boodhan said the CBC would be serving eviction notices next week to people occupying areas on the river banks and would be going in with crews to clean up clogged channels.
"Persons cannot take the law into their own hands and build on the river banks", he declared.
Boodhan called on the relevant Government ministries to also take a pro-active approach and clean channels in the dry seasons.
Amrit Bansee, a resident of Endeavour, blames the HDC housing project of Oasis Gardens for contributing to the woes of the people of Endeavour.
He said the drainage system at Oasis Gardens was poorly constructed without any consideration for the surrounding communities.
Bansee said: "They make a development with no planning for drainage. Where does the water go? It goes into the same old channels that has have been here for how many years.
"A new bridge was built, but the channels were not changed and at the downstream end of it nothing was done, so where does the water go? More water is being thrown into the stream and must create problems."
Sherman Sieuchand, a resident of Satnarine Trace, Cunupia, said flooding at Hinking Road near the Cunupia River can be attributed to land grabbing.
He said: "A couple of the issues we having is that everybody here is looking to seize a little piece of the drain, a little piece of the river and narrowing up the water entrance and that is what causing the flooding."