Dilemma of drainage in Maraval

THE EDITOR: I refer to your editorial of November 23, 2004, in which you asked whether, as a member of the House of Representatives and a minister between 1991 to the present time, I had intervened to put an end to the flouting of the law by developers in Maraval who had narrowed the Dibe River from a width of more than 200 feet to as little as five feet in some places. I do wish that I could have intervened, but the land development in question, which reduced the drainage capacity of the Dibe River in the Maraval, was done over 50 years ago, in the pre-Independence era, before I was born! Some of the drainage systems in Maraval are as much as 100 years old, and were never intended to cater for the present population, and over the years, long before I was elected in 1991, houses were built on top of drains in Maraval, and watercourses and drains were systematically covered and reduced in size.

As I said in my letter of yesterday to the Newsday, this situation is a major infrastructure challenge that cannot be easily solved without significant property acquisition. I am in discussion with the Ministry of Works to identify the parcels of land and buildings in Maraval that will have to be acquired to improve the drainage systems to a satisfactory level, but as I am sure you will appreciate, compulsory acquisition of property, especially in areas where families have lived for more than 50 years, is never a simple task. Inevitably, some residents of Maraval will be adversely affected, since they will have to relinquish part or all of their property for the good of the community, and ensuring that these persons are properly compensated will present another challenge for me as a representative.

COLM IMBERT
Maraval