Shastri Boodan
As heavy rains left several parts of T&T under water and commuters stranded yesterday, staff and pupils of the Durham Village Hindu School in Charlieville, Chaguanas, had to be evacuated. Fire Services appliances along with other vehicles had to be used remove them from the school compound on John Peter Road West.
Chaguanas Mayor Faaiq Mohammed said it was the worst flooding he had seen in Charlieville and on the Caroni Savannah Road in years. He blamed the situation on flood mitigation work by the Ministry of Works and Transport on drains on the northbound lane of the Uriah Butler Highway near Charlieville.
Mohammed said the contractors cleared a ten-foot drain but in the area of John Peter Road, the drain had to flow into a two-foot cylinder which could not handle the volume of water.
“We told them this cylinder needs to be changed as well, but they never did it. We are experiencing a backlog of water here and on Caroni Savannah Road,” he said.
Mohammed said he tried to talk to Ministry personnel about the problem but was ignored. He claims if the area hadn’t been cleared the flooding might not have occurred and if the problem with the cylinder is not rectified there will be more flooding in the area.
Mohammed described the school compound as a disaster area.
“The school has to be closed for a few days to clean out and we at the Borough in Chaguanas will be assisting the school and the community through the Disaster Management Unit,” he said.
“This is the worst we have seen for the day in Chaguanas and to me the worst we have seen in Charlieville in quite a long time. The only thing I can say about this disaster is that the Minister of Works Rohan Sinanan, he is the disaster.”
Several students had no choice but to go through the flood waters to use the walkover to get across the highway.
Sylvan Emrith, a resident, said he had to take his children, Matthias and Mikela, along with other children through the floodwater. He called for immediate action to remedy the situation and said it was the first time he had experienced so much flooding in the area.
The mayor and a resident placed dried coconut branch across an open drain so that students would not fall in.
At Caroni Savannah Road several businesses and the Charlieville Hindu Temple were flooded. Students at the ASJA Educational Complex had to shelter from rain and avoid flood waters until they could get transportation out of the area.
Flash flooding also occurred along the Chaguanas Main Road and parts of the Edinburgh 500 Housing Development.
In response to concerns raised about yesterday’s floods, Minister of Works and Infrastructure Rohan Sinanan said culverts and cylinders across the country will be upgraded.
‘The cylinders are there for 30 years now. Clearly the infrastructure we have now cannot handle the volume of water, that is why there is an entire drainage plan to upgrade the nfrastructure but all cannot be done at the same time. We cleaning areas that have never been cleaned before but those cylinders have to be replaced,” he said.
Sinanan said there is a coordinated effort to change cylinders to cope with the large volume of rainfall that take place in a short space of time.He said the culverts and culvert crossings will be upgraded.
“These crossings are too small for the volume of rain.”
He said T&T experienced a lot of flash flooding that the drains just could not handle