Shas­tri Boodan

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

Streets along Roys­to­nia, Lisas Gar­dens and McBean were flood­ed.

Some mo­torists had to turn back when they reached the South­ern Main Cou­va which was heav­i­ly flood­ed along sev­er­al points be­tween Isaac Junc­tion and Roop’s Junc­tion.

Car­li Bay Road was al­so hit by flood­ing as well as the en­trance to the Cou­va An­gli­can Church was im­pass­able to foot traf­fic.

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

He said “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. 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.”

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

Ram­s­ingh said “ 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 flood­ing makes it dif­fi­cult for every­one from the mo­torist to the school child, 200 busi­ness­es are af­fect­ed, stu­dents from two schools, three banks and a cred­it union al­so feel the crunch. The Cham­ber would be mak­ing a for­mal ap­peal to the min­is­ter for help.”