Works and In­fra­struc­ture Min­is­ter Jack Warn­er says "a tragedy of im­mense pro­por­tion" could hap­pen if the Town and Plan­ning Di­vi­sion does not be­come ac­tive­ly in­volved in the con­struc­tion of peo­ple's hous­es. He said part of the flood­ing prob­lem was that peo­ple chose to live on hills which re­sult­ed in de­for­esta­tion. Warn­er was speak­ing to the me­dia at Wa­ter­hole, Co­corite, around 4 pm yes­ter­day. Sev­er­al res­i­dents of the area were af­fect­ed by Sat­ur­day's heavy down­pour. The tor­ren­tial rain­fall al­so rav­aged sev­er­al homes and com­mu­ni­ties in north­west Trinidad. Warn­er said: "I have seen some places to­day and some hous­es be­ing built on some ar­eas...Town and Coun­try Plan­ning, if noth­ing else, has to come on board and ac­tive­ly look at the places where peo­ple build homes and make sure that that doesn't hap­pen, oth­er­wise we shall have a tragedy of im­mense pro­por­tion."

Warn­er, Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, sev­er­al mem­bers of her Cab­i­net, of­fi­cers from the T&T De­fence Force and the Of­fice of Dis­as­ter of Pre­pared­ness and Man­age­ment toured ar­eas such as La Sei­va and Git­tens Road in Mar­aval, Dibe Road and Co­corite. Clean-up crews were busy wash­ing away sludge and slush from the road­way in Mar­aval close to the Coun­try Club where parts of the wall op­po­site the Cli­co of­fice failed to stand the test of the harsh rain­fall. Warn­er said af­ter view­ing the ar­eas, he re­alised gov­ern­ment's emer­gency fund for dis­as­ters such as flood­ing "can­not do it." He said: "The funds we have can­not do it.

"While I was com­ing here to­day, I was think­ing even if we have twice the amount, we can't do it, he added. "There­fore we have to have some kind of strate­gic plan that will do the crit­i­cal works first and then you al­ways pri­ori­tise. "That is what we have to sit and do be­cause all where we you go every­thing is a pri­or­i­ty but we just sim­ply can't do every­thing at the same time."