Saying that over the last ten years, the then PNM government had focused more on "buzzwords" than actual work, Rural Development and Local Government Minister Khadijah Ameen said the new government has inherited a vastly neglected network of watercourses as well as crumbling drainage infrastructure.
Speaking at the post-cabinet press conference on Thursday May 15, Ameen said her ministry launched its flood mitigation exercise on Wednesday, and had hit the ground running a day after with work beginning on the cleaning, dredhing and clearing of watercourses throughout the country.
"What you are seeing is a co-ordinated, multi-agency initiative aimed at strengthening resilience to flooding in the most vulnerable communities."
She said the scope of work involves three ministries – Works and Infrastructure; Rural Development and Local Government; and Agriculture, Land and Fisheries – and will engage teams of workers across all 14 regional corporations in Trinidad in a targetted approach to clear critical watercourses and upgrade drainage infrastructure.
"But let me warn TT, although we have hit the ground running, we are dealing with ten years of neglect and mismanagement of our watercourses and our flood-prone areas."
Ameen said over 200 watercourses have been identified for immediate action in the flood-mitigation programme in urban and rural communities.
She identified water courses in the south oropouche river basin, the Caroni river basin, north Oropouch river basin, the Caparo Valley, and the Ortoire river basin as key starting points for this initiative, but, "This does not exclude other areas for scope of works."
She said her ministry has overseen the deployment of excavators, backhoes, dump trucks and specialised vehicles to facilitate the work in the various regional corporation at now extra or additional costs to the state.
Ameen said that disaster management units in the various corporations will be employing risk-reduction strategies such as public education campaigns, school outreach and the surveillance of critical watercourses over the course of the rainy season.
She also admitted that there was a need for a more standardised, centralised system when it came to planning and disaster preparedness in order to get realtime response in times of disasters.
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