Volunteers and corporate citizens are joining hands with Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar in a massive clean-up and beautification campaign to alleviate flooding across the country. Dubbed the C&B Movement, the drive was announced yesterday by Persad-Bissessar, as she toured her Siparia constituency.
Since her appointment, several communities in Penal, Siparia, Debe and Barrackpore have been experiencing heavy flooding. In anticipation of more of the same, Persad-Bissessar said she has mobilised groups to assist with cleaning up rivers, drains and ravines. She explained that a Cabinet meeting was held and a call was made for corporate sponsorship for the project.
"It is amazing to see the number of citizens who are donating equipment, machinery and their own time to begin this clean up. "It is needed at this time because it will help with the flooding. It also places a lot more foot soldiers in communities and this will serve as a deterrent to fight crime," Persad-Bissesar said. She added that her Government will also partner with the Defence Force and the police to arrest crime. She noted that as the rainy season continues, a lot of areas need to be cleaned. "The Minister of Works plus the engineering corps of the Defence Force as well as the Minister of Local Government will highlight the areas that are flooded and they will look at the plans and identify the patterns of flooding."
"Once this is done, they will identify the areas targeted for cleanup. This will be done for the entire T&T." She noted that the C&B drive is not just a Government effort but should be undertaken by all citizens.
"We want to ask everyone to C&B, clean up the cities and towns, the villages. Get rid of all the rubbish in your homes. We are going to use the Defence Force, Ministry of Works, Local Government and Environment. I don't envision this as simply a Government effort. I am seeing it as a national effort where each of us will clean out our communities," the Prime Minister said.
Regarding statements made by Finance Minister Winston Dookeran about the state of the Treasury, Persad-Bissessar said that her Government will fulfil all election promises. "We can fulfil such promises in the short term but we will have to re-prioritise in the medium term. We have just about three months left in this fiscal year and so we will have to identify funding just for these three months and I believe we can do that," Persad-Bissessar said. She added that there will be an early budget to re-prioritise for projects needed by the national community.