Chairman of the Siparia Regional Corporation Leo Doodnath says residents who were affected by the Divali day floods in Fyzabad and Siparia must share some of the responsibility for the floods.
He was speaking during a tour of the affected areas yesterday with Local Government Minister Marlene Coudray. Residents of Quarry Village, Siparia, and parts of Fyzabad awoke with water inside their homes on Divali morning.
“There are too many people who indiscriminately throw all kind of things in the rivers. We took out tyres and all kinds of rubbish from the river today. This dumping has a major part to play in the flooding,” Doodnath added.
He said the corporation would crack down on those who violated litter laws.
“We will be hiring compliance officers to go out in the field and ensure people are not doing those things,” he said.
Speaking to the T&T Guardian during her visit, Coudray said while assistance was being offered to the affected households, the main focus was ensuring the Divali day floods did not happen again.
“We gave out some mattresses and food cards to those affected but our main objective is to make sure this does not happen again,” she added.
Coudray said the regional corporation was partnering with the Ministry of Works’ Drainage Division to clear all blocked watercourses.
“This flooding is a result of recent development in the area that diverted the main watercourse. There was also a lot of garbage in the river and a tree that had fallen in,” she said.
Residents of Fyzabad and Siparia spent all day yesterday cleaning up after the floods left some homes under as much as four feet of water. Ricky Sampath, who lives in Quarry Village, said his family lost most of their belongings to the floodwaters. He praised the CEPEP workers for their help in the clean-up efforts but lamented the lack of assistance so far to recoup their losses.
He said: “So far, we get some help to clean u, but we only getting some temporary mattresses. We didn’t hear about anything else yet.”
One Mulchan Trace family said Divali was not finished.
“Tonight (Friday night) is the last night for Divali. If we finish cleaning up in time we could light some deyas,” said Varsha Moolchan.
Moolchan said the family had been marooned in their home all day and all their preparations for Divali were in vain.
“The boys built arches to light up the street to the main road and every year we make sweet bags for all the children in the village but this year was a big disappointment.”
The family was critical of the visit by Coudray and Doodnath, saying they were not told anything about compensation.
“They came here but we were not told about compensation, apparently they came to sightsee,” said Moolchan.