The Mayaro-Manzanilla flood damage is far more extensive than initially thought, Works and Transport Minister Suruj Rambachan admitted yesterday. As such, Government will be transporting pumps into the area to assist in siphoning out flood waters out of the Nariva Swamp area, which were still relatively high up to yesterday, and the Defence Force’s Engineering Battalion will also provide assistance in the exercise from today.
At yesterday’s Government press conference at the Office of the Prime Minister, St Clair, Rambachan said for the first time ministry officials were able yesterday to traverse the areas and the damage was much more extensive than believed from preliminary visits. In one area, he said, approximately half a kilometre of road was completely destroyed, in another 450 metres were destroyed and in one area 950 metres were “dishevelled.”
He added: “We’ll have to completely reconstruct about four kilometres of the roadway. “The difficulty we are facing is the amount of water still flowing from the Nariva Swamp onto the road and getting into the seaside. It’s a constant flow.”
Today, officials would try to enter the swamp to see if the river had breached any areas and whether the water now flowing was really from the river that had somehow changed its course, he said. Rambachan said the Director of Highways believed the constant flow of water they have seen all week could not only be coming from just the swamp. "We are also teaming up with the engineering corps of the army to use their equipment and personnel to help do a more detailed survey, particularly in the swamp areas,” he said.
Equipment moved in
The ministry had moved equipment into the area, including a big pump and was seeking three more immediately to pump water over the road and into the sea, he said. There were two excavators on site to help control the water coming from the swamp, he added. Rambachan said parts of the road could still be protected.
The ministry’s first objective was to connect Manzanilla and Mayaro and examine building a roadway to attach to the existing road that survived on the edge of the swamp, he added. But there would be some displacement of the energy sector as its heavy equipment could not pass along the roadway, he noted.
He said even when the new roadway was started, they may not be able to use it unless the ministry completed the reconstruction of the existing road. Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Rambachan said, had mandated that the needs of all affected should be taken care of.
Mayaro MP Winston Peters left the Cabinet meeting yesterday to go to the area to further assess people’s needs and ensure agencies deal with it. Rambachan said the Government was engaged in several coastal protection programmes, tendered this year up to $351 million.
Two are in Manzanilla and one at the Shore of Peace on the southwest coast. He said T&T was losing between two and four metres of land annually and in Cedros up to four metres.
“We’ll have to intensify efforts in this area,” Rambachan said.