Ve­tiv­er grass may be the way to go when it comes to pro­vid­ing a long-term so­lu­tion to deal with the nu­mer­ous land­slides around Trinidad and To­ba­go.

In fact, it is al­ready be­ing used in parts of To­ba­go to re­pair land­slides in the north­ern part of the is­land.

This is the word from Tel­lenia Kissoon, Project and Ad­min­is­tra­tive Co­or­di­na­tor of the Diego Mar­tin-based Ve­tiv­er TT, an or­gan­i­sa­tion that deals with land­slides and ero­sion us­ing the Ve­tiv­er grass in­stead of cost­ly re­tain­ing walls.

Kissoon said the grass is rel­a­tive­ly cheap and is grown at their main nurs­ery at Car­oli­na Vil­lage, Cou­va.

“Ve­tiv­er is used to help with soil ero­sion, land sta­bil­i­ty and to help hold the soil to­geth­er,” she said.

Kissoon said Ve­tiv­er TT is work­ing with an NGO in north­ern To­ba­go to help con­trol coastal land­slips.

She said Ve­tiv­er has an ad­van­tage, since it is eas­i­ly in­stalled and much cheap­er than con­struct­ing a re­tain­ing wall out of con­crete and steel.

Kissoon said Ve­tiv­er is al­so fire-re­sis­tant and drought re­sis­tant and helps the en­vi­ron­ment by re­mov­ing at­mos­pher­ic car­bon.

She said once in­stalled, the plants keep on pro­duc­ing suck­ers.

Kissoon said the grass can al­so be har­vest­ed, dried and used in hand­i­craft and bas­ket weav­ing projects.

Kissoon said Ve­tiv­er TT is will­ing to work with the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly on soil ero­sion projects and in land­slide-prone ar­eas as part of the dri­ve to cre­ate land sta­bil­i­ty in To­ba­go.

To­ba­go was among the hard­est hit dur­ing re­cent bad weath­er, with the is­land re­port­ing prop­er­ty dam­age, felled trees, flood­ing and nu­mer­ous land­slides.