As most of the country breathed a sigh of relief on Sunday when the Tropical Storm watch was discontinued for T&T, Aranguez farmers were busy counting their losses.
Between noon on Sunday and Monday morning, about 350 acres of cultivated land were submerged by floodwaters when the Aranguez river overflowed in Abdool Ghany Extension in Aranguez.
Guardian Media Limited visited the area, where at 9 am, dozens of farmers were busy pumping floodwater out of their crops. Acres of sweet pepper, melongene, hot peppers, lettuce, zucchini and other crops were destroyed.
Agriculture Minister Clarence Rambharat visited the area and spoke to farmers, who took him on a tour of the affected areas.
President of the Aranguez United Farmers Association Satynanand Maharaj told Guardian Media Limited the association is now considering taking legal action against a private developer who removed an eight-foot-high portion of the riverbank, causing floodwaters to come gushing into their fields.
“The crops have to be abandoned, they will not survive, between today and tomorrow the crops will actually start to dry and compounding that we have river slush on the land which makes the land uncultivable,” Maharaj said.
He met with the news team just opposite the developer’s apartment complex. While Maharaj and Rambharat were able to enter the compound for several minutes, the gates were closed to GML’s cameras.
Maharaj said several of the farmers approached the developer about the damage caused to their crops but he seemed unconcerned.
“We have a land developer who actually cut the bank down where the bank is only two or three feet tall and that was responsible for most of the flooding yesterday, we spoke to the gentleman, he was very nonchalant about it he said that Rowley would compensate us and he left, he couldn’t care less,” Maharaj said.
He said the farmers will take months to recover as they are still reeling from October 2018 floods.
To compound this, most of the cultivation is done on consignment- so farmers depend on sales to pay for seeds, herbicides and nutrients taken on credit from plant shops.
He is calling for a relief fund to be set up to support farmers in times of natural disasters.
“what we as farmers are hoping for is some kind of special fund to be set up because what is paid to farmers is actually a pittance, it is really seed money when you consider crops ready to reap and we have lost that, which would be two months of work, two months of spending money on the crops.”
Meanwhile, association secretary, Bharat Rampersad sent out a call to the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA.)
Rampersad said earlier this year WASA seized the farmers’ water pumps, stating the water that ran in the river belonged to the authority.
Agriculture Minister, Clarence Rambharat spoke at length to the farmers, assuring them they would receive some assistance from the State.
He told GML he informed the Works Ministry of the damage done to the river bank and its employees would investigate whether the developer was granted any approval for the work.
The minister urged the public to pay attention to food safety warnings and be careful about buying produce over the next few days as he said there is a danger of thieves trying to hawk contaminated produce to unsuspecting members of the public.