RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Clogged drains and rivers are be­ing blamed for the ex­tent of flood­ing which cov­ered parts of Clax­ton Bay, Gas­par­il­lo and Williamsville yes­ter­day.

The rains start­ed be­fore dawn and be­fore mid­day, the flood­wa­ters rose in the com­mu­ni­ties lo­cat­ed on the banks of the Guaracara Riv­er, which runs for 30 kilo­me­tres from the Cen­tral Range be­fore emp­ty­ing in­to the Gulf of Paria.

San­dra Seep­er­sad, of Sum Sum Hill, Clax­ton Bay, said the drains and rivers were clogged.

“The wa­ter has nowhere to go. The wa­ter came straight up to the wall. If we didn’t have that flood bar­ri­er, the wa­ter would have come in­side,” she said.

She called on the Min­istry of Works to clean all the wa­ter cours­es.

“If they do this, the wa­ter will run off nice and smooth,” she said.

At Gas­par­il­lo, sev­er­al miles away, the res­i­dents had sim­i­lar com­plaints. Scores of chil­dren at­tend­ing the Mara­bel­la North and South Sec­ondary Schools were un­able to get to class­es. Taxis could not work and mo­torists used al­ter­na­tive routes to es­cape the floods. There was no re­port­ed loss of live­stock or prop­er­ty, how­ev­er, as res­i­dents placed flood bar­ri­ers to pro­tect their homes.

San­dra Ram­char­i­tar, of Bonne Aven­ture Road, Gas­par­il­lo, said every time it rains the com­mu­ni­ty floods.

“About eight years ago, the neigh­bour to the back of this house built a high wall and blocked the riv­er. The wa­ter is backed up, so every­one gets flood­ed every time it rains,” she added.

Point­ing to a dust bin, Ram­char­i­tar said: “The wa­ter cov­ered this dust­bin and every time it is like this when it rains. Chil­dren could not go to school. We could not go to work.”

Mean­while, Clax­ton Bay/Pointe-a-Pierre coun­cil­lor Na­dia Khan-Mo­hammed al­so blamed the Min­istry of Works for fail­ing to clear wa­ter cours­es.

She said: “We have been out since 4 o’clock to­day. Since last night the rains have been falling and we have seen flood­ing in the Cedar Hill Main Road, Her­mitage Main Road, South­ern Main Road and Clax­ton Bay. Imag­ine shrubs and trees grow­ing in the wa­ter cours­es. These wa­ter­cours­es fall un­der the ju­ris­dic­tion of the Min­istry of Works.”

Khan-Mo­hammed ex­plained that she has been plead­ing with the Min­istry of Works for as­sis­tance but was told there is no equip­ment or man­pow­er to as­sist.

Even­tu­al­ly, a back­hoe from the Cou­va Tabaquite/Tal­paro Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion came on-site and start­ed to clear some drains.

“I am plead­ing with the Min­is­ter of Works to come out of his of­fice and spend some time with us here so he can see first-hand the prob­lem we are ex­pe­ri­enc­ing,” Khan-Mo­hammed said.

Mean­while, Na­pari­ma MP Rod­ney Charles said the Guaracara Riv­er was in ur­gent need of dredg­ing.

“As re­cent­ly as March 23 this year, I asked the Min­is­ter of Works and Trans­port when the dredg­ing of the Guaracara Riv­er would com­mence.

He stat­ed that there were no re­cent stud­ies for that area and that the riv­er was cleaned in pre­vi­ous years. Does that jus­ti­fy not dredg­ing it now?” Charles asked.

He said Sinanan has blamed the flood­ing on un­planned de­vel­op­ment, il­le­gal dump­ing of waste, en­croach­ment of the chan­nel and un­man­aged fill­ing of low-ly­ing ar­eas.

“To blame cit­i­zens who en­croach on rivers is un­ac­cept­able. It is still the Gov­ern­ment’s du­ty to en­sure that the law is fol­lowed,” Charles said.

Ef­forts to con­tact Works Min­is­ter Ro­han Sinanan were un­suc­cess­ful as sev­er­al calls and mes­sages left for him yes­ter­day went unan­swered.

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