As the rainy sea­son be­gins, the Plan­ning, Eco­nom­ic Af­fairs and De­vel­op­ment Min­istry has be­gun re­view­ing the Town and Coun­try Plan­ning Act of Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Es­sen­tial­ly, the act pro­motes or­der­ly and pro­gres­sive de­vel­op­ment of land, en­sures prop­er plan­ning for towns and rur­al ar­eas, pro­tects the en­vi­ron­ment and pub­lic health as well and pro­vides a frame­work for grant­i­ng per­mis­sion for build­ing and de­vel­op­ment.

The min­istry’s move fol­lows a week­end of floods and a warn­ing from cli­mate change ex­perts that weath­er con­di­tions will wors­en.

The ex­perts al­so called on the new gov­ern­ment to fo­cus on long-term mea­sures and en­force leg­is­la­tion to pro­tect build­ing codes.

As such, Plan­ning, Eco­nom­ic Af­fairs and De­vel­op­ment Min­is­ter Kennedy Swarats­ingh yes­ter­day re­vealed to Guardian Me­dia that he has since in­struct­ed his staff to re­view the act for in­for­ma­tion, com­pli­ance and aware­ness.

Swarats­ingh al­so promised to work with Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter Khadi­jah Ameen and Works and In­fra­struc­ture Min­is­ter Jear­lean John pend­ing the out­come of the re­view.

Swarats­ingh said, “I had a meet­ing with the staff at the Min­istry to­day and I’ve asked them to look at it, but I haven’t had a re­sponse yet. So once I get a re­sponse, I’ll com­mu­ni­cate it to the min­is­ters of Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment and Works and In­fra­struc­ture.”