Reconstruction in Tobago

The area in Tobago along the Windward Main Road between Delaford and Charlotteville, recently severely damaged by mudslides, is expected to get an estimated $200 million facelift with the decision of the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) to move to have urgent repair and reconstruction work effected. It promises to be the largest such project in Tobago, greater even than the reconstruction which followed the devastation by hurricane Flora in late 1963. In the process, it will pump much needed capital into the island’s economy, provide hundreds of jobs, directly and indirectly, as well as better access to areas and be a boost for tourism as well as agriculture, and prevent similar disasters in the future.

Secretary of Infrastructure/Public Utilities at the Tobago House of Assembly, Mr Hilton Sandy, pointed out in a media briefing following Thursday’s THA Executive Council meeting that the work would specifically cover road and related infrastructure works, for example retaining walls and drainage. Much of this cost, Mr Sandy explained would be concentrated in the area between King’s Bay, Delaford and Speyside. In some areas, the Secretary of Infrastructure explained, the roadway would have to be rebuilt completely, while in the case of others, such as the down hill entry to Charlotteville, roads will have to be diverted. The construction of retaining walls will be a major contributory factor in the avoiding of possible future landslides, while drainage work, providing the water conduits are designed and built with an eye to future housing and other development, will help to prevent flooding. Meanwhile, the THA should also seek to undertake a reafforestation project as well as lobby the Central Government to strengthen laws dealing with indiscriminate housing developments and squatter settlements. The laws, however, should not merely be on the statute books, but should be implemented vigourously.

Still photographs and television shots of the areas hit by the mudslides revealed a picture of housing having been allowed to take place on hillsides where the soil was clearly not suitable for housing. This was further aggravated by a clear lack of effective drainage. This meant that in the absence of proper drainage, the run off provoked by the heavy showers of the recent rainstorm resulted in massive erosion. But erosion must have gradually taken place over the years, and with neither retaining walls with strategically placed weeping holes nor wide and deep enough drains to accommodate the excessive water, the recent mudslides were accidents waiting to happen. While the construction of fairly large retaining walls may prove expensive, nonetheless houseowners should not have to wait on Government, a regional or city corporation, or in the case of Tobago, the THA, to effect sensible drainage on their property.

This, of course, does not apply to traditional water courses, for example rivers or ravines passing through several properties. These are the responsibility of either the Central Government or the respective Local Government body. THA Chief Secretary, Mr Orville London, has described the Windward Main Road project as a “mini-development plan,” adding that a North-East Tobago Management Plan had been on the drawing board for some time. “This is both a challenge and an opportunity, because it is an opportunity for us to do things and maybe to do them a little better....It is not going to be cheap,” Mr London cautioned, “but it has to be done and it has to be done right.” With a planned expenditure of $200 million and the horrendous pictures and stories coming out of Tobago following on the recent monstrous landslides, we believe that the whole country will agree with the Tobago House of Assembly Chief Secretary that it has to be done right.