Min­is­ter of Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Kaz­im Ho­sein has as­sured all cit­i­zens af­fect­ed by this week’s tor­ren­tial rains that the min­istry through its 14 mu­nic­i­pal cor­po­ra­tions and state agen­cies will con­tin­ue to do all in its pow­er to en­sure that all af­fect­ed ar­eas re­turn to a sense of nor­mal­cy in the short­est time pos­si­ble.

In a state­ment and via his so­cial me­dia ac­count, the min­is­ter said CEPEP was on the ground and of­fi­cials from re­spec­tive agen­cies were al­so pro­vid­ing as­sis­tance.

Min­is­ter Ho­sein said he, Min­is­ter of Works and Trans­port Ro­han Sinanan, along with tech­ni­cal of­fi­cials from the re­spec­tive Min­istries, chair­man of the Pe­nal/Debe Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion Dr Allen Sam­my, CEO Bet­ty Ali and per­son­nel of the Dis­as­ter Man­age­ment Units vis­it­ed the flood af­fect­ed ar­eas yes­ter­day.

He said in some ar­eas where the flood­wa­ters have sub­sided, clean-up op­er­a­tions are un­der­way by CEPEP teams and Pub­lic Health work­ers from the Cor­po­ra­tions.

Min­is­ter Ho­sein said he met with res­i­dents of Mo­hess Road, Ra­mai Trace, Kat­wa­roo Trace, Clarke Road and Debe where re­lief ef­forts by the Cor­po­ra­tion’s Dis­as­ter Man­age­ment Unit were un­der­way with as­sis­tance from the Com­mu­ni­ty Emer­gency Re­sponse Team (CERT) vol­un­teers, the Trinidad and To­ba­go De­fence Force and Coast Guard per­son­nel.

He added, “res­i­dents have been re­ceiv­ing mat­tress­es, hot meals and wa­ter from NGOs, cor­po­rate en­ti­ties and un­af­fect­ed cit­i­zens from the Pe­nal/Debe re­gion.”

Min­is­ter Ho­sein ex­plained that the Min­istry has been util­is­ing, “an all-of-Cor­po­ra­tion ap­proach to emer­gency man­age­ment and we are de­ploy­ing as many re­sources as pos­si­ble to en­sure that the lives of res­i­dents re­turn to nor­mal as soon as pos­si­ble.”

He al­so praised may­ors and chair­men of the 14 mu­nic­i­pal cor­po­ra­tions, es­pe­cial­ly new­ly-elect­ed coun­cil­lors, some of whom have not even been sworn in­to of­fice for as­sist­ing those af­fect­ed.