Senior Reporter
akash.samaroo@cnc3.co.tt
Local Government and Rural Development Minister Faris Al-Rawi has singled out the central borough for its handling of a construction project, which he said defies the laws of physics.
At a meeting with officials from the country’s 14 regional corporations, who are tasked with facilitating local government reform, Al-Rawi yesterday stressed that a major principle of reform is value for money.
However, he then said, “In a particular corporation, Chaguanas Borough Corporation, right now there is a drain being built next to a mosque, the drain is six inches higher than the road.”
After a brief pause, Al-Rawi said, “It’s dry at present, but when the water comes the laws of physics will miraculously reform themselves.”
Some members of the crowd chuckled.
“Gravity will no longer exist, water will float up from the lower road, six inches into the drain and miraculously the problem will disappear,” Al-Rawi said.
He questioned how this could happen.
“Surely, none of us expect that anybody purposefully did that, the money is being spent, the job was scoped, we have a projects and planning unit, we have an engineer, we have a quantity surveyor, we have the public procurement law, we have people inspecting, we have people and neighbours nearby, but Newtonian physics is now at stake. That apple really didn’t fall downward on Newton’s head, it went upward in that particular corporation and water now floats,” Al-Rawi said facetiously.
Al-Rawi was referring to a box drain at Greenidge Road, which members of the mosque there have complained about due to delays heading into the month of Ramadan.
Chaguanas Mayor Faaiq Mohammed arrived seconds after Al-Rawi moved to another point.
The meeting at the Government Plaza Auditorium in Port-of-Spain focused on helping corporations to transform their operations.
Al-Rawi said a major benefit will be income generation.
While the property tax is being hailed as a main contributor to the coffers of regional bodies, Al-Rawi proposed three other money-making plans they are ready to start.
“They are Local Economic Development (LED) booths, vertical hydroponics and biomass recycling mulching and topsoil production,” he said.
He said there are seven LED booths in Pleasantville valued at $690,000.
“If we now go to the booths and we look at the assets that corporations own, assets that are not being used, you will realise we have empty spaces and look at the enterprise model at Ariapita Avenue and Woodbrook where you have food courts now,” Al-Rawi said.
He said spaces have been identified for vertical hydroponics.
“In 72 square feet, we can put six vertical units at a cost $22,000, it will yield 425 bundles and the revenue per month is $6,800. Your sole job is to make sure it ain’t thief and it didn’t rotten,” he explained.
He said there are also plans to make San Fernando’s streets resemble spaces in Amsterdam and Curacao, areas covered overhead, with police deployed, and where businesses will be able to open later into the night.