The one billion-dollar revenue windfall from high energy prices to the Ministry of Finance has accrued without the government, people and corporate Trinidad and Tobago having done anything to earn it.
The challenge for the country is to ensure that it is creatively and productively used for developmental purposes.
The Minister of Finance has indicated that a portion of the unexpected surplus will be distributed to those displaced and disadvantaged by the flooding. Once allocated in good measure and disbursed with transparency, funds spent to satisfy human needs amount to quality governance.
But the government has another long-term responsibility which is to invest in production that will generate returns beyond the immediate. Compensatory funding without seeking to fix the problem amounts to an assured return in another rainy season to bail out residents and business owners when the next rains come; and in this season of sharply changing weather patterns, that can be next month.
The government needs to invest a significant portion of the windfall to create water catchment areas at the source sites of the rains before they pour into the Caroni Basin and elsewhere and flow through the surrounding low-lying areas.
Such catchments will not only ameliorate the annual flooding disaster but can contribute mightily to all-year-round water supply for the dry season. The result will be to spare consumers, especially those living in deprived parts of the country, the ordeal of having to go for days, weeks and months without this life-giving commodity.
In addition to providing potable water for households, the catchments can supply water for farming and for cleaning purposes through specially designed engineering systems.
The potential benefits of going in the direction sketched above are tremendous. Reducing and removing the psychological and real trauma of citizens enduring flood waters inside homes, business enterprises and on highways cannot be assessed in money terms.
What can however be calculated are the savings from annual expenditures to return roads, homes, bridges and other infrastructure to some form of use after the seasonal rains. In this flooding season, prices for vegetables, fruits, meats and other edibles have gone out of the reach of many.
One effect of very high local food prices, because of the scarcity created by damaged products, is the easy recourse for consumers to purchase even larger quantities of foreign-produced canned items; it’s a sure means of draining away foreign exchange.
Creating the reservoir-type facilities to accommodate and process the over-abundance of water is not an original idea. A couple decades ago, John Humphrey suggested the construction of massive ponds in the central areas to prevent flooding. Investment in the catchment areas can not only dramatically reduce the human and physical suffering because of flooding, but will meet one of the major development challenges of the present into the future.
The United Nations has predicted that by the year 2050, five billion people around the world will face water shortages for at least one month per year.
By capturing, processing and making trillions of gallons of potentially destructive flood waters usable, we in Trinidad and Tobago will be preparing to meet a future of major water shortages.