MSJ head: Earthquake should be a wake-up call

MOVEMENT For Social Justice (MSJ) leader David Abdulah has said Tuesday's earthquake should be a wake-up call for TT to reflect on the country’s state of unpreparedness in the event of any natural disaster.

“The seismologists have been warning us for quite a number of years that TT could be in an earthquake zone.” he said.

He was speaking yesterday at a press conference atMSJ headquarters in St Joseph Village, San Fernando.

On Tuesday an 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck at 5.31 pm near Venezuela. It was felt across TT, Venezuela, Guyana, Grenada, St Lucia, Barbados and St Vincent. Extensive damage was done to building and properties across the country.

Abdulah said the seismologists have been warning TT "and we have not really responded as a country to those warnings." He said climate change is a reality and governments have done very little in addressing it or putting plans in place.

Abdulah said, “And because we have been fiddling while Rome was burning...our country’s leadership, both past and present, has failed us. It is the government's responsibility to take the lead in ensuring that our country is prepared as best as we can for any natural disaster, and PNM and UNC have failed this country.”

Quoting a Chinese proverb, he said, "A vision without action is a daydream, but action without a vision is a nightmare." TT, he said is going through a nightmare because it had seen certain types of action without any coherent vision.

“When we get flooding, the Opposition cusses out the government, who then hires a contractor to clean up some watercourses, then the following year the same thing happens again.

"Then you have a change of government and when that happens they do the same thing over again, expecting to get a different result.

"That is an indication at madness at the level of leadership.”

Abdulah told reporters that to deal with the state of unpreparedness the MSJ had proposed the implementation of a natural reconstruction effort.

“A year ago I put forward this idea of what this country needs in face of threats of natural disaster, a natural reconstruction effort which would involve all citizens of TT to ensure we can get through natural disaster with minimal impacts to physical resources and loss of life.

“This has to be initiated by government, but involve citizens and private sectors, with people putting money in to get a benefit, not only a financial benefit, but a better community and more sustainable development.”