ALTHOUGH flooding eased yesterday in parts of Penal/Debe and southern Trinidad, some rural communities in the region remained inundated as clean-up and assessment efforts continued.

By noon, much of the water that had submerged the area for two days, stranding residents and commuters and closing schools and businesses along SS Erin Road and Penal Rock Road, had largely disappeared from the roads.

In Batchyia Road, residents said they had become accustomed to the annual flooding but were desperate for a solution.

Ousha Seegobin told the Express the area had seen worse, including a major flood last year which damaged his house, appliances and furniture. Staying outside her home until the waters receded, she said some neighbors were forced to seek alternative accommodation.

“There have been back-to-back floods in recent years. This time it wasn’t as bad as last year. Last year was worse than this: everyone inside the house got so much water and people lost a lot. The water didn’t get inside this time. (People living) lower than me had to move and go to different places because of the flooding,” Seegobin said.

“I am very sad. I have to continue to experience this all the time. They can do better than that. I don’t know what they can do for us. Society works for us, but it should do what needs to be done. The sewers and others are full, and that can also be a cause,” she added.

Nearby residents Ramnarine Sookraj and Jaden Ramchand used a canoe to bring food and water to affected residents.

“Right now we’re really flooded here and we have our boat. We will help people with a little water and a little food. To be honest, it’s a real problem. Right now, around 20 to 30 houses are flooded,” Sookraj said.

An elderly man added: “All the time we lose – where we live, where we cook – the whole stove and the refrigerator. This time the water was not as bad as last year. They (the authorities) could do more to help us. All I want them to do is clean up the river and make life easier for the people who live here. I am disappointed as an elderly person and there is no help.

Penal/Debe Regional Corporation (PDRC) Chairman Gowtam Maharaj yesterday reported that Suchit Trace and Clarke Road were passable only by large vehicles as the waters remained rising. He further indicated that there were no evacuations yesterday, but efforts to assist residents who were trying to move to and from their homes continued. Maharaj said since the floods were declared a disaster earlier this week, the Trinidad and Tobago Defense Forces have provided continued support.

The Ministry of Rural Development and Local Government worked together with the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management to provide hampers to the affected people, he said. He added that the Community Environmental Protection and Enhancement Program (CEPEP) had offered its services to assist with the clean-up while the Water and Sanitation Authority (WASA) was trying to send essential water reserves in the affected areas.

Maharaj sticks to the estimate

Maharaj yesterday defended his estimate that 10,000 households would be affected by flooding in the region. On Wednesday, this figure was refuted by Local Government Minister Faris Al-Rawi, who said the ministry was aware of around 400 homes affected by flooding. Speaking to the Express, Al-Rawi questioned Maharaj’s estimates, later calling the figure an unfounded exaggeration.

“I note that Mr. Gowtam Maharaj appears to have found the lost city of Atlantis, claiming that 10,000 houses have been affected and under water…I can categorically state that so far our estimate is that about 400 houses are affected by floodwaters, but not necessarily damaged,” he said.

Maharaj, however, told Express that on the day the floods were deemed disastrous in scale (Tuesday), large parts of the area had been cut off by floodwaters and thousands of people could neither enter nor to go out.

“Debe was cut off from Penal via Batchyia; Penal was cut off from Rock Road and Barrackpore via Clarke Road. These are indeed the 10,000 I am talking about, perhaps more. I know that the minister said that he was going to do a more quantitative count, but faced with a disaster of such seriousness, we had to treat them by category, by community. If you look at the number of households in these areas, it’s 10,000 or more. Perhaps his meaning of the term “affect” – he means individuals, if they lose something; but certainly more than 10,000 people were affected,” he said.

Maharaj said given the widespread nature of the event, the focus should not be on the numbers but rather its very real impact on people in the community. He added that at the time of their response, representatives of the different authorities could not count the impact of the floods on individual households but rather analyze them by region, based on what was observed.

“I saw members of the public also challenging Mr. Al-Rawi’s position. We should focus on the personal care aspect, which we launched at the PDRC without waiting for the deployment of any agency. Council members and community members – what we did that night brought some relief. We trucked people stranded in all geographical corners and brought them back home,” he said.

“There is also a mental support aspect that we have tried to do. I was at Penal Junction and spoke to panicked and frightened people and school children who had to be moved. The focus should be on that, rather than creating conflicts over numbers,” he added.

He also renewed his call for a holistic approach to dealing with such events and better coordination between central government ministries and local government bodies. “What is needed, more than that, is a holistic approach to flooding and its treatment. We usually intervene late and end up with toilet paper problems when the focus should be on people,” he said.

Former chairman of the regional society, Dr Allen Sammy, told the Express yesterday that he believed the estimate given by Maharaj was accurate. He said he did not believe that only 400 households had been affected by the flooding, and added that he had witnessed the flooding first hand.

“We have 20,000 houses in Penal Debe, 22,000 CSO (Central Statistical Office) structures, including businesses, etc. Each councilor owns on average about 2,000 structures, and if you have five affected, you can understand how many houses are affected,” he said.

“No one along Penal Rock Road could have gone to work yesterday. I don’t live far from there. When you hear flooding in one area, thousands of homes are isolated. That doesn’t mean they’re all flooded, but you can’t go to work, you can’t go to the doctor, you can’t go shopping, you can’t do anything,” Sammy noted.