What officials and activists, I observe, have been calling a lagoon, is in fact, a delta in the Oropouche Basin. That is, the water is drawn across a wide sheet, or plain, into many strands, a main river, the Godino, and eight other tributary rivers. All of this constitutes a delta which empties into the Gulf of Paria. Maps of the area in the late 19th century show that this delta stretched as far as what is known as Monkey Town and Barrackpore, over 20 miles inland.
At high tide, this delta will be always flush with water, being that the sea water back up into the various channels. A flurry of business and housing settlements on the delta itself and on its eastern fringe have endangered the future of the delta system.
It is impossible to mitigate the effects of a full-fledged highway and its five broad-based interchanges across this delta system, unless this artificial feature is run on stanchions.
This is because of the following reason: the water runs across the face of the delta in sheet flow. Drainage pipes will not be able to capture the water, which flows mainly from east to west, pressing against the north-south embankment. There will always be a back-up of water to the east of the embankment, in the districts of Debe and Penal, particularly at high tide.
Building channels along the sides of the embankment to the various tributaries as a means of outlet will hardly cure this problem. This is because the water in the tributaries will back up at high tide and push the water into the agricultural estates and communities. If this part saltwater is not sufficiently diluted by rainwater, the saltwater will salinate the soil, making it highly unusable for future agriculture.
The proposed highway in the Mon Desir to Fyzabad to Siparia to Penal to Debe area will therefore be the final decline of a very important delta system. These systems are important to protect small islands against global climate change; protect against coastal erosion and flooding; provide a sanctuary for variegated forms of ancestral wildlife; and provide a buffer for the communities against catastrophic high water events.
Ravina Singh