IN 2022 Trinidad and Tobago floods again and again with a series of overbank floods and flash floods occurring in the twin-island.
These events followed consistent rainfall since last Friday and intermittent rainfall on Saturday that affected the whole country once again.
The rivers in Caroni, Diego Martin, Maraval and St Joseph have breached their banks causing destruction and despair in its part.
Several communities were affected as homes and vehicles were flooded. Many areas in the Bamboo, El Socorro and many other areas were inaccessible. Flooding along the Caroni area also caused the submersion of a major part of the Uriah Butler Highway.
The roads and highways were affected tremendously and caused a lot of vehicular traffic as well. There are still significant damage to our road infrastructure in many parts of the country. Everyone is anticipating increased flooding and landslides in various areas that are susceptible to more flooding by rising tides.
The Gran Couva main road in the vicinity of Hilltop bar also collapsed and people were mostly looking for safe places for kids and the elderly to be moved to. Many felt abandoned by the government as citizens already felt it was a lost cause to seek government assistance.
At least many UNC councillors and good Samaritans were out and about trying to assist affected citizens across the country. This is really heartwarming to see such amazing people trying to help their fellow citizens.
The prime minister himself gave an advisory to citizens to be very alert to these dangers and, as far as feasible, restrict their movements until the dangers have passed or are abated. However, the PNM has spent the last seven years without doing what is required by clearing the drains and dredging the rivers, not preparing for the rains which were inevitable, instead just pretending they were working for all the citizens but as we can clearly see from the devastation, this is far from the truth.
All they really do is try to divide us, and now across the country, we are seeing the brunt of all the problems culminating into this devastation. The amount of garbage in these water courses are unbelievable and anyone will wonder if Solid Waste does anything at all except allow plastics to enter the water courses.
We are tired of hearing the same story over and over again by the Minister of Works and Transport as Rohan Sinanan keeps saying the same thing over and over, that there was debris in the watercourses or that the major factors are really the volume of water exceeding the watercourses’ capacity but not doing anything to alleviate the problems.
We will hear more excuses again like that there are no infrastructures in the world that can handle that amount of rainfall in a short space of time, but we never see any real dedication from the ministry to ensure that the Government is accountable, as well as those who generate and manage the waste in this country.
We constantly see a sea of garbage and plastic bottles clogging the drains and waterways across the country but no effort to do a clean up of this. Wouldn’t that help the situation?
The real truth is that we the citizens, all of us, will continue to suffer, as the government plays their politics, the country will continue to go down and down, unable to do what is required, the much-needed upkeep of the infrastructure that is blatantly obvious within plain sight.
A change is definitely required!
Neil Gosine is an insurance executive. He is also the treasurer of the UNC and a former Chairman of the National Petroleum Marketing Company of Trinidad and Tobago. He holds a Master’s in Business Administration MBA, BSC in Mathematics and a BA in Administrative Studies. The views and comments expressed in this column are not necessarily those of AZP News, a Division of Complete Image Limited.
Commentary: Feeling Abandoned in Floods
IN 2022 Trinidad and Tobago floods again and again with a series of overbank floods and flash floods occurring in the twin-island.
The Gran Couva main road in the vicinity of Hilltop bar also collapsed and people were mostly looking for safe places for kids and the elderly to be moved to. Many felt abandoned by the government as citizens already felt it was a lost cause to seek government assistance.
At least many UNC councillors and good Samaritans were out and about trying to assist affected citizens across the country. This is really heartwarming to see such amazing people trying to help their fellow citizens.
The prime minister himself gave an advisory to citizens to be very alert to these dangers and, as far as feasible, restrict their movements until the dangers have passed or are abated. However, the PNM has spent the last seven years without doing what is required by clearing the drains and dredging the rivers, not preparing for the rains which were inevitable, instead just pretending they were working for all the citizens but as we can clearly see from the devastation, this is far from the truth.
All they really do is try to divide us, and now across the country, we are seeing the brunt of all the problems culminating into this devastation. The amount of garbage in these water courses are unbelievable and anyone will wonder if Solid Waste does anything at all except allow plastics to enter the water courses.
We are tired of hearing the same story over and over again by the Minister of Works and Transport as Rohan Sinanan keeps saying the same thing over and over, that there was debris in the watercourses or that the major factors are really the volume of water exceeding the watercourses’ capacity but not doing anything to alleviate the problems.
We will hear more excuses again like that there are no infrastructures in the world that can handle that amount of rainfall in a short space of time, but we never see any real dedication from the ministry to ensure that the Government is accountable, as well as those who generate and manage the waste in this country.
We constantly see a sea of garbage and plastic bottles clogging the drains and waterways across the country but no effort to do a clean up of this. Wouldn’t that help the situation?
The real truth is that we the citizens, all of us, will continue to suffer, as the government plays their politics, the country will continue to go down and down, unable to do what is required, the much-needed upkeep of the infrastructure that is blatantly obvious within plain sight.
A change is definitely required!
Neil Gosine is an insurance executive. He is also the treasurer of the UNC and a former Chairman of the National Petroleum Marketing Company of Trinidad and Tobago. He holds a Master’s in Business Administration MBA, BSC in Mathematics and a BA in Administrative Studies. The views and comments expressed in this column are not necessarily those of AZP News, a Division of Complete Image Limited.