Although the floods were gradually receding in some parts of Woodland yesterday, several homes and sections of roadway were still inundated with water. Prematie Dwarpaul, whose house has been surrounded by floods for the past three days, said it has been a very difficult situation for her and her son.
“We get flooded out in October. We did not even get over that now and now we get flood out again. This is too hard,” she said.
Dwarpaul was among residents who got donations of mattresses and other relief supplies from the Ministry of Works and Transport. Cleaning supplies and water were also handed out to affected residents.
As he waded through his flooded yard in tall boots to collect supplies, Roger Jaimungal, 75, complained that all his household items, including fridge, stove and bed, were damaged when three feet of water gushed into his home.
Works Minister Rohan Sinanan, who carried a case of water through the floods for Jaimungal, said although there was some flooding the water had gone down significantly. Sinanan, who opted out of the PNM’s Convention in Tobago yesterday to visit flood-affected areas in south Trinidad, said excessive rains were to blame for the flooding.
He said: “Everyone is talking about the pumps, the pumps...if the water channels are breached and overflow, where you pumping the water to?”
Drainage supervisor for the area, Kumarie Ramgattie, confirmed that all 13 sluice gates were working.
Sinanan said the Works Ministry will be re-engineering some watercourses and cutting new channels to handle increased volumes of water. However, he said citizens have to take some responsibility for the situation because people are constructing structures on swampland.
Responding to complaints about the poor response by state agencies, the minister said: “When the flood is on, there is not much that can be done. In Trinidad and Tobago, we do not have mandatory evacuation.”
He said he has been liaising with the Ministers of National Security and Public Utilities about the situation.
The Mohess Road Foundation Helping Crew, which put together almost food hampers between Saturday night and yesterday, as well as 16,000 channa sandwiches, were among several NGOs assisting affected residents. In addition, people have been using boats, tractors and trucks to transport residents and provide them with food, water and even mattresses.