By Kimberly Ramkhalawan
Monday November 29, 2022
Twin island state, Trinidad and Tobago is reeling following consecutive days of rain across the nation. While it’s not a hurricane or storm, the damage sustained from widespread floods has been viewed as a national disaster of great proportions.
Its local Meteorological Services had warned of the fifteen-day event in agro-forecast with rains anticipated to continue until December 5th.
The heavy rains come even as the earth has already been saturated following a very wet October and early November and water channels inundated with sediments and debris from previous rainfall events, where flooding had already occurred damaging homes and property.
Trinidad and Tobago has been experiencing heavy rainfall non stop as of November 22nd, with rainfall amounting to over three to six inches per day in some areas. As a result apart from flooding, landslides have been reported across the country, fallen trees and broken roadways from over saturation
With its North eastern, Central and Southern parts experiencing the brunt of the floods, cutting off several communities from the rest of the country. On Wednesday, the east coast community of Manzanilla, was cut off when its road way was washed into the sea. The event was reminiscent of similar occurrences in 2014, however, comes this time around where alternative routes are also subject to damage. Manzanilla is often a main thoroughfare for those employed and looking to get to oil and gas fields located in Guayaguyare and Beachfield from the north eastern side of the island.
Central communities built on plains located in the vicinity of the Caroni river are seeing yet another period of flooding. Areas such as Las Lomas, Kelly Village, and Cunupia, Oropune Gardens near the Piarco International Airport are covered in much as five feet of water, forcing rescue efforts to come via pirogues and rafts. However, currents pushing waters out to sea has made it challenging to reach marooned and trapped residents. In south Trinidad, areas such as Woodland, Penal and Debe, are covered in floods, where receding waters are dependent on the time and ocean tides at the Gulf of Paria.
Citizens have rendered blame not only on the weather, but laying it at the feet of the government for its lack of preparedness and what they call neglect ahead of the rainy season, all feeding into a number of contributing factors. With roadways collapsing, they say it has been due to a lack of maintenance of the country’s infrastructure, as several areas in across Trinidad have held protests in recent years over numerous potholes rendering damage to their vehicles. And with heightened rainfall, surfaces saturated has resulted in collapsed roads. As for flooding, several communities say its Ministry of Works and Transport charged with oversight of its drainage, have failed to clean large waterways of debris and sediment leading into the overflow of rivers and its tributaries into residential areas. Apart from this, poor Town and Country planning that has facilitated construction of housing developments on hilly areas, and redirecting of streams and water ways from its natural path has had consequential effects on neighbouring communities.
Responding to this criticism, its Minister for Works and Transport, Rohan Sinanan says it intends to take on a National Drainage plan as government looks to solve the nation’s flooding woes long term. And with Trinidad and Tobago signing onto a third CAF loan for addressing national infrastructure in recent weeks, Minister Sinanan says the plan takes into consideration widening main rivers in the country to allow for such heightened rainfall as a result of climate change.
Concerns are now mounting as to the prices consumers will pay in the coming weeks at the markets ahead of the Christmas season. Fresh produce and goods have already been at high prices due to soaring fertilizer prices as a result of the Russia Ukraine war. However, the latest compounded floods, many farmers says as much as TT$40,000 to TT$60,000 crops in tomatoes, cucumbers, seasonings have been damaged as a result of saturated soils and deluge submerging their crops.
While Trinidad and Tobago does have a policy with the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF), for the year so far the TT Government has received a total of US$5.84m (TT$39.42m) following the heavy rainfall that occurred in October. Prime Minister Dr.Keith Rowley has gone on record stating that any insurance payout from CCRIF does not go directly to citizens affected by flooding, but is redeposited into the consolidated fund from which monies were withdrawn for disaster responses.