Cabinet has approved a priority list of watercourses to be cleared across Trinidad and Tobago in a bid to protect farmlands from further flooding.
Minister in the Ministry of Agriculture, Saddam Hosein, said the move is part of a coordinated national response to the ongoing weather crisis.
With floodwaters threatening crops and livestock, he said the government is moving quickly to protect the agricultural sector.
“We were fully briefed by the engineering division within the Ministry of Agriculture, Lands and Fisheries, where a priority list was given with respect to those watercourses that require cleaning. So therefore, when it rains, it doesn’t flood the farmlands easily. That is a project that has in fact been approved by the Cabinet already. Just four weeks into government, that project engaged the attention of the Honourable Minister Ratiram.”
He added that the long-standing issues that have made it difficult for farmers to access compensation are also being addressed.
“There is a perennial issue in Trinidad and Tobago with respect to registration of farmers and the accessing of compensation and incentives, and that ties back to land tenure issues. That also is one of the areas which I look closely at at the Ministry of Agriculture because there are certain criteria that one has to meet with respect to being registered as a farmer in order to access compensation grants and so on.”
Minister Hosein said farmlands across the country have been devastated, noting that one of the worst-hit areas is El Socorro and its environs, where flood pumps and gates have failed repeatedly.
“Where the flooding is so bad, the pumps should have been coming on. It has been five years ago I have been the MP for Barataria/San Juan. I have, every single year, I would complain about these flood pumps at the El Socorro site. I did, in fact. Ms. John knows that I raised it with her, and that is something that is receiving the attention also of the Ministry of Works and Infrastructure.”
And Minister of Rural Development and Local Government, Khadijah Ameen, pointed to successful interventions in areas like Orange Grove, where new pumps and drainage works have helped reduce flooding in farmlands.
“Three pumps, in fact, were deployed, two large ones and one smaller one. There was a concrete structure restricting the flow of water that was removed, and that area has not seen proper drainage maintenance over the last few years. We are seeing faster drainage in waterlogged areas. We have seen areas where the water came up, but the runoff was much faster than before.”
As recently as mid-May, farmers in Aranguez and El Socorro South were already counting their losses after being affected by severe flooding.