If citizens were not sure of just how ill-prepared Trinidad and Tobago is for a major natural disaster, the events of Wednesday and Thursday were a sure reminder. However, it should also be a warning to the state agencies usually involved in such activities to buck up now.
There was the mere rupture of a 16-inch Water and Sewerage Authority main towards the end of the Audrey Jeffers Highway in Cocorite. But what transpired as a WASA crew worked to repair it was members of the public who live and work in the western part of the island having to endure hours of frustration in gridlock traffic for almost two days.
Thanks to the ineptitude of other state agencies, including the T&T Police Service and Ministry of Works and Transport, who should have played bigger roles in this event, those two days were nightmarish for hundreds of people.
So at this point, we ask where is the emergency evacuation plan for the capital citizens have heard about for years? This is the plan which allows for a quick mobilisation of state agencies to ensure the public is safe and not inconvenienced in any way by any event, the least of which should have been a ruptured line.
It is unfathomable, for example, that motorists were allowed to traverse the Audrey Jeffers Highway at all to access the western part of the island, since the roadway just before the Peakes Service Station was impassable.
Since only one side of the highway’s dual carriageway was affected, a more feasible approach would have been for the public to use the Western Main Road route through St James and over the St James Flyover in Cocorite, thus bypassing the worksite completely.
What transpired, however, was that police officers instead tried to redirect traffic to alternative routes after most motorists got to the intersection just before the site, near the Cocorite Fishing Facility, thus causing the massive traffic gridlock throughout Mucurapo, St James and Woodbrook.
Of course, the TTPS would have had to have been a major player in such an activity, since ensuring traffic heading west moved freely through St James and environs would have been critical to this.
But even if the TTPS did not initially pick up on such a possibility, some technocrat in the Ministry of Works and Transport should have also made such a call.
This, therefore, was a complete failure on the part of key entities to be more proactive and creative in their approach to a simple traffic management issue.
Minister Rohan Sinanan was first to admit he was not happy with the communication between his ministry and WASA on this call. However, he did admit that at some stage the ministry played a role in the process—which is to say that the minister can also point a finger in his direction for the frustrating situation in which the public found itself.
We certainly hope, therefore, that Minister Sinanan will sit with key stakeholders to ensure that the next time such an event occurs, or even a major accident along any of the major highway arteries, they have a well thought out plan that includes communication to the public and well-plotted alternative routes to be used.