City clean-up gets going

LACK of proper planning by those concerned and the indiscriminate bulldozing of the hillsides by housing developers have been blamed in part for Wednesday’s flooding in Port-of-Spain. In the absence of Mayor Murchison Brown, acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Port-of-Spain Corporation, Laraine Alexander, toured Port-of-Spain yesterday and noticed the amount of silt that settled in downtown Port-of-Spain and which arguably had its genesis through the erosion of the hills.

Downtown Port-of-Spain, especially South Quay in the vicinity of City Gate, was the worst silt-affected area. One observer said, “Through the vandalised-type logging in the mountain, the road was made clear for the water to speed its way to the low-lying areas.” Coupled with the fact that the rains came during high tide, this made for a stalemate as far as the movement of water was concerned. According to Alexander, there were other factors responsible for the unusual type of flooding. Ministry of Works and Transport workers, who man a facility that hurries the water to the sea, were said to have left work for the day when the floods started taking shape. Delinquent householders who dispose their garbage wantonly also came in for criticism, because their action caused the waterways to be stifled in many areas.

Despite all the problems, Port-of-Spain Corporation daily-rated workers came out in full force to clean-up the city. Workmen were seen carrying out their duties arduously all day yesterday. A Ministry of Works and Transport official “ducked” blame for yesterday’s flooding. Up to late last night, mopping-up operations were still taking place. In another area, CEPEP workers were highly praised yesterday by the Chairman of the San Juan/Laventille Regional Corporation, Jeffrey Reyes, for the role they played in clean-up operations after the rains which flooded parts of Morvant and caused landslides in the St Ann’s area. Reyes said, “They really performed well, and matched corporation workers all the way.” Morvant and parts of St Ann’s fall within the San Juan/Laventille region. Much work had been done to clean up the mess by yesterday afternoon.