RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA
rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

A mo­bile pump at the Min­istry of Works Tul­sa Trace, Pe­nal site has kicked in, chan­nelling flood­wa­ters out of the Oropouche Drainage Basin on Mon­day night.

While Pluck Road, Wood­land re­mains most­ly im­pass­able, sev­er­al ar­eas in­clud­ing Mun­gal Trace, Ra­hamut Trace, Ack­bar Trace and en­vi­rons were still un­der wa­ter.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, Pres­i­dent of the Wood­land Flood Ac­tion Group, Adesh Singh, said the pump had been off ini­tial­ly be­cause of an elec­tri­cal mal­func­tion.  How­ev­er, when res­i­dents be­gan com­plain­ing and went per­son­al­ly to see if the flood­gates and pumps were op­er­a­tional, their out­rage prompt­ed ac­tion and op­er­a­tors were sent in to ac­ti­vate the pumps.

The floodwaters have drained from parts of Pluck Road but remain pooled under people's homes along the low-lying side traces off Pluck Road, Woodland. (Photos courtesy ADESH SINGH)

"Right now, the floods are not as bad as we ex­pect­ed. It has drained from Pluck Road, ex­cept for the low-ly­ing re­gion near the Ra­ja Yo­ga Cen­tre.  But all the side roads like Mun­gal Trace, Ra­hamut Trace are still flood­ed," he said.

"The 50 feet breach at the bank of the South Oropouche Riv­er has to be fixed be­fore the next flood comes," Singh added.

He not­ed that the flood­gates al­so are in need of re­pairs and the op­er­a­tors need to be more vig­i­lant and open the flood­gates when the tide is low.

"If this is not done, then the wa­ter will back up in­land, which is what hap­pened on Mon­day," he said.

The floodwaters have drained from parts of Pluck Road but remain pooled under people's homes along the low-lying side traces off Pluck Road, Woodland. (Photos courtesy ADESH SINGH)

Last month, Works Min­is­ter Ro­han Sinanan told Guardian Me­dia two pumps were in­stalled to drain the Oropouche Drainage basin. He said work con­tin­ues on the up­grade of the ex­ist­ing pump­ing house, while two mo­bile pumps have been sta­tioned at that site with op­er­a­tors in the event they are re­quired.

Sinanan said dredg­ing of crit­i­cal wa­ter­cours­es has been com­plet­ed, not­ing that 396 projects have been iden­ti­fied for this fis­cal year.  The min­is­ter con­firmed that thus far, 218 projects have been com­plet­ed and a fur­ther 178 projects are pro­ject­ed to be com­plet­ed soon.

Guardian Me­dia teams are cov­er­ing re­ports of flood­ing in the South Oropouche Drainage Basin and will up­date this sto­ry as in­for­ma­tion comes to hand.