New­ly ap­point­ed Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter Khadi­jah Ameen has start­ed a na­tion­al flood mit­i­ga­tion cam­paign, which she said will see the im­me­di­ate de­ploy­ment of equip­ment and man­pow­er to clear drains and wa­ter­cours­es to pre­vent flood­ing.

Ameen has vowed to be proac­tive, rather than re­ac­tive, to floods.

Speak­ing at the launch of the ini­tia­tive yes­ter­day, Ameen re­vealed that an en­tire ware­house of equip­ment has been sit­ting idle, even as flood vic­tims strug­gle to re­build their lives and farm­ers suf­fer dev­as­tat­ing loss­es every year. Her first or­der of busi­ness is to im­me­di­ate­ly be­gin clear­ing rivers and trib­u­taries from the South Oropouche Drainage Basin, Ca­paro Val­ley rivers, Ca­roni Riv­er Basin, North Oropouche wa­ter­ways, Diego Mar­tin rivers, and rivers flow­ing out of the Rio Claro re­gion.

“It is no guess­ing game whether we will have rain or not. It is no guess­ing game about which wa­ter­cours­es need to be cleaned. It is no guess­ing game about who gets flood­ed every year and who doesn’t,” Ameen said.

“But for some rea­son, many re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tions have been starved of re­sources. Their ve­hi­cles and equip­ment op­er­ate with no fu­el, no mon­ey for parts, and no main­te­nance. Trucks, back­hoes, low­boys—es­sen­tial to clear­ing drains—have been ground­ed or are limp­ing,” she ex­plained.

Ameen said this has led to se­ri­ous con­se­quences.

“Flood­ing isn’t just about wa­ter in your yard. It’s about fam­i­lies who bor­rowed to buy ap­pli­ances, fur­ni­ture, and who now lose every­thing. It’s about farm­ers los­ing crops. It dri­ves up the price of food. It bur­dens every­one,” she said.

She de­scribed the new plan as a co-or­di­nat­ed na­tion­al re­sponse that would im­me­di­ate­ly de­ploy all equip­ment and man­pow­er avail­able un­der the Min­istry of Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment—in­clud­ing Cepep units—to clear drains and rivers in flood-prone com­mu­ni­ties.

“Some cor­po­ra­tions have ful­ly func­tion­al fleets. Oth­ers have none. So, we’re pool­ing our re­sources. Ex­ca­va­tors, dump trucks, and back­hoes will be moved across every dis­trict in Trinidad and To­ba­go. And we are not leav­ing un­til the job is done,” Ameen de­clared.

She said work has al­ready start­ed on equip­ping and ac­ti­vat­ing emer­gency shel­ters with food, first aid sup­plies, and oth­er es­sen­tials.

“We’re not just talk­ing—we are act­ing,” said Ameen.

The list of prob­lem­at­ic wa­ter­cours­es was com­piled by pub­lic health de­part­ments and will be ex­pand­ed with in­put from coun­cil­lors and Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment.

Ameen al­so sig­nalled a shift from past prac­tices where work would start and then stall.

“In the past, a ravine would be cleaned, but rub­bish would sit there for weeks wait­ing to be re­moved. That’s why we’ve in­clud­ed trucks in our fleet. We will do every­thing need­ed in one go be­fore mov­ing to the next area.”

She as­sured: “This pro­gramme has no po­lit­i­cal hat. No po­lit­i­cal colour. We are work­ing to serve every sin­gle per­son.”

Min­is­ter of Agri­cul­ture Ravi Rati­ram, who joined Ameen at the launch, un­der­scored the dev­as­tat­ing toll floods have tak­en on farm­ers and the broad­er econ­o­my.

“Flood­ing af­fects farm­ers, but it al­so af­fects cit­i­zens,” he said.

Call­ing on cit­i­zens to sup­port the ini­tia­tive, Rati­ram urged com­mu­ni­ties to dis­pose of waste re­spon­si­bly.

He al­so said cor­po­ra­tions will be putting sys­tems in place to as­sist cit­i­zens with prop­er dis­pos­al.

Guardian Me­dia reached out to for­mer works min­is­ter Ro­han Sinanan about the claims, but he said he had no com­ment. Both for­mer min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Works, Richie Sookhai, and for­mer lo­cal gov­ern­ment min­is­ter, Faris Al-Rawi, did not re­spond to calls and mes­sages.