Gail Alexan­der

The San Juan Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion (SJL­RC) has to get in­volved to at­tend to lo­calised drains, which will help re­solve El So­cor­ro South’s flood­ing prob­lems, said Works Min­is­ter Ro­han Sinanan yes­ter­day.

And Sinanan al­so clashed in Par­lia­ment with UNC’s Rishi Seecher­an about re­ceiv­ing 300 let­ters a day from the Op­po­si­tion MP “with the same thing over and over and over.”

This oc­curred as Sinanan an­swered Op­po­si­tion queries on is­sues aris­ing from re­cent rains and flood­ing.

On UNC MP Sad­dam Ho­sein’s query about ur­gent works for El So­cor­ro South due to flood­ing woes, Sinanan said the area is im­pact­ed by a num­ber of main drains and the min­istry built a pump house to pull the wa­ter in­to the Ca­roni Riv­er.

He said, “The pump house is ac­ti­vat­ed and work­ing. The Drainage Di­vi­sion vis­it­ed the ar­eas of the con­tin­ued flood­ing. The drains that run along the road­way are much low­er than the main drain that chan­nel the wa­ter to the pump house, caus­ing the is­sue to flow.

“How­ev­er, these drains fall un­der the San Juan-Laven­tille Cor­po­ra­tion. I’d ad­vise the MP, if he can li­aise with his coun­cil­lor in the area to have these drains sort­ed out. The pump house is work­ing, the min­istry func­tion is work­ing, the prob­lem is that the coun­cil­lors need to get the wa­ter to the pump house.”


Ho­sein asked, “El So­cor­ro South res­i­dents have had wa­ter up to their knees in the past four days–how can the min­is­ter say the pumps are work­ing to get the wa­ter out?”

Sinanan replied, “The Drainage and Me­chan­i­cal Di­vi­sions both vis­it­ed the ar­eas and con­firmed to me both pumps are work­ing to sat­is­fac­tion. The prob­lem is El So­cor­ro South is a very low area and what’s hap­pen­ing is some flash flood­ing there and the lo­calised drains!”

When Ho­sein re­quest­ed more pumps, Sinanan said, “Clear­ly, the MP doesn’t un­der­stand what I just said! The wa­ter is not get­ting to the pump! If you put 10 more pumps it won’t solve the prob­lem! The prob­lem is it’s a lo­calised ar­eas, the coun­cil­lors has (sic) to get in­volved. Bring­ing in more pumps won’t solve the prob­lems. Both pumps are work­ing.”

On Seecher­an’s query about re­pairs for three land­slips at Fletch­er’s Road, Sinanan said the road falls un­der the Cou­va/Tabaquite/Tal­paro Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion purview.

“As usu­al, the min­istry stands ready to pro­vide any tech­ni­cal ad­vice the Cor­po­ra­tion may re­quest,” he said.

On Seecher­an’s re­quest for an al­ter­na­tive road, Sinanan sug­gest­ed he write the min­istry and a team will be sent to see if that’s pos­si­ble.