Dawson Pancham woke up at 5.30 am yesterday to find two feet of water in his Endeavour home. His stove was floating on its side in the kitchen and his washing machine, living room set and other furniture and appliances were standing in water.
When he looked outside, his front yard was like a river, filled with water from the overflowing old trainline across the road that served as the main drain in the community. Small tools in his business, L&M Fabricating and Welding, located at the side of the house, were damaged by the water.
Pancham’s family was one of some 30 in Endeavour, Chaguanas West, whose homes were flooded out after brief but intense rainfall accompanied by gusty winds yesterday morning. His next door neighbour Arun Salickram lost six “big size” ducks she was rearing when her yard flooded out.
“They drowned. I had to take the rest and put them in a high, dry place,” she said. “The water didn’t reach inside because we put sand bags by the door.”
Pancham commended the quick response of Chaguanas East MP and Mayor Gopaul Boodhan. He said they promised to send social workers to his home to estimate the cost of the damages and assist him to refurnish his home. When the T&T Guardian visited Endeavour later in the morning, Cadiz, in tall boots, was overseeing the dredging of the trainline by a backhoe from the Chaguanas Borough Corporation.
The area’s councillor Vandana Mohit and Mayor Boodan were also at the site. Chaguanas West MP Jack Warner was not seen. Cadiz said the trainline being dredged on one side of the road was in his constituency of Chaguanas East. The other side, where the homes were flooded out, was in Chaguanas West.
Cadiz gave a short history of the trainline settlement. “When the trains stopped running in 1967 an unplanned settlement grew up around it. There was a lot of ad hoc construction of unauthorised dwellings. “People erected bridges over the trainline and put their own drainage systems into it.” This resulted in a lot of problems as the trainline would become blocked and overflow during heavy rains, Cadiz said.
“As fast as we fix, more problems come,” he said Cadiz said a senior engineer from the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources visited the area yesterday and will visit again today to do a proper assessment of what needed to be done to fix the problem. He said two areas, Jerningham and Cunupia, had been affected by the heavy rains for the same reason,
Boodhan said on the banks of the Caparo River close to Woodford Lodge, there are some ten to 15 illegal structures which contribute to the clogging of the watercourse there. He warned that the Chaguanas Borough Corporation would begin to enforce the law about interfering with water courses and people would be charged.
Boodhan said he got a report that part of the roof of a house on St Ives Street, Chaguanas, was blown off but the Fire Service quickly responded and brought relief to the family. He said there were reports of flooding and collapsing culverts in St Charles Village, Charlieville, and Cacandee Road, Felicity.
Boodhan said residents felt the clogging of some drains in these areas was due to Government pavement projects.