SHAS­TRI BOODAN

Heavy ear­ly morn­ing show­ers brought flood wa­ters to sev­er­al parts of Cou­va and en­vi­rons, to­day. 

Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands that streets along Roys­to­nia, Lisas Gar­dens and McBean were flood­ed. Some mo­torists had to turn back when they reached the South­ern Main in Cou­va, which was heav­i­ly flood­ed along sev­er­al points be­tween Isaac Junc­tion and Roop’s Junc­tion. In ad­di­tion, Car­li Bay Road al­so was hit by flood­ing.  The en­trance to the Cou­va An­gli­can Church was un­pass­able to foot traf­fic.

Cou­va South MP Rudranath In­dars­ingh told Guardian Me­dia he has re­peat­ed­ly begged the au­thor­i­ties to have the drains cleaned.

“I have writ­ten to the rel­e­vant Min­istries re­peat­ed­ly re­quest­ing that a gul­ly suck­er be used to clear all the drains along the Cou­va Main Road. Noth­ing has been done,” he said.

The condition of the Caroni River following heavy rains on Sunday 9 October 2022. [Image by SHASTRI BOODAN]

“There seems to be no in­ter­est in the peo­ple of Cou­va South by the Gov­ern­ment. The Min­is­ter of Works has said that he was clean­ing sev­er­al drains, but there is more flood­ing now. Is he de­ceiv­ing the peo­ple?  The roads have de­te­ri­o­rat­ed be­cause of the poor drainage,” the MP ar­gues.

“We have the Cam­den Road that leads to the he­li­port and the UTT Avi­a­tion Cam­pus that is now fa­mous for its mas­sive pot­holes and is al­most im­pass­able. The mil­lion-dol­lar Phoenix Park In­dus­tri­al Es­tate is be­ing built and the roads lead­ing to that es­tate are in a de­plorable state. The roads and drains in Cou­va need to be cleared and cleaned reg­u­lar­ly.”

Flooding along the Couva Main Road following heavy rains on Sunday 9 October 2022. [Image by SHASTRI BOODAN]

Ac­cord­ing to the Cou­va South MP, there is an aban­doned project by the PURE Di­vi­sion of the Min­istry of Works to do drainage and road re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion works along Buc­car­ro Road.

“The 2023 bud­get has re­vealed that $450 mil­lion would be spent in road re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion works through the Min­istry us­ing the Sec­ondary Roads Re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed. Will this mon­ey be spent to fix roads and drainage on­ly in the PNM con­stituen­cies?  We wait pa­tient­ly to see what is in store for Cou­va,” MP In­dars­ingh said.

He added: “The Cou­va/Tabaquite/Tal­paro Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion is starved for fund­ing and there is no mon­ey to get any­thing done at the lev­el of the lo­cal gov­ern­ment.”

Traffic backs up on the South-bound lane of the Solomon Hochoy Highway in the vicinity of Claxton Bay, after the highway was flooded following the heavy rains on Sunday 9 October 2022. [Image by SHASTRI BOODAN]

Mukesh Ram­s­ingh, Pres­i­dent of the Cou­va/ Point Lisas Cham­ber of Com­merce, said the Cham­ber would be writ­ing to the Min­is­ter of Works ap­peal­ing for help.

“If rain falls heav­i­ly for 10 min­utes, there is flood­ing. About 10 years ago the area be­tween Noel Street and Isaac Junc­tion was cleaned us­ing the Gul­ly Suck­er. The au­thor­i­ties came back af­ter some time and cleared the same area again.  That was so long ago, and we need the drains to be cleared.,” the CPLCC pres­i­dent said.

Ram­s­ingh said: “The flood­ing makes it dif­fi­cult for every­one—from the mo­torist to the school child.  Some 200 busi­ness­es are af­fect­ed. In ad­di­tion, stu­dents from two schools, three banks and a cred­it union al­so feel the crunch.”