No politics in flooding: Volney

FORMER St Joseph MP Herbert Volney has criticised efforts by Opposition senator Gerald Ramdeen to politicise flooding within the constituency.

In a post on his Facebook page, Volney described videos posted on Facebook of Ramdeen politicising flooding in Bamboo Settlement No 1 as “disgusting and reprehensible.”

Volney, who was MP from 2010-2013, declared, “I am impelled to reject and condemn this cheap politics at a time when my former beloved constituents are traumatised and hurting.”

Volney recalled that with the help of former councillor Santam Ramjit, “We restructured and rebuilt the drainage system in lower Bamboo, the area Ramdeen visited." He also said former works minister Jack Warner helped to resurface roads in the area.

“The problem with lower Bamboo is that the area is about ten feet below the high-water-level mark of the Caroni river and when the river crests after heavy rain and while it is high tide the water flows into the area,” Volney said. While there are a number of pumps in the area, Volney said, “Once the river crests the water will flow into the agricultural lands and first line of houses about 800 meters from the river.”

At that point, he said, the volume of water is too much for the pumps to handle and was a hazard in low-lying areas along the riverbank. Volney observed that outsiders often blame flooding on the tardiness of authorities in dredging the local lagoons, but said whether or not this happens, “The area will flood once the river crests as it had these last few days.”

Volney also said there is spring tide worsening the conditions in the Bamboo No 1 area.

“To walk through the farmlands and pull up green peppers and seek to blame the Member of Parliament (MP) for it is disingenuous and cheap political dishonesty,” Volney said. He also said it was “cheap politics” for Ramdeen to walk through pained residents' homes and ask when last they saw their MP.

“To claim to have walked out of the Senate's budget debate to serve the people is just simple small talk,” Volney said. He asked if Ramdeen brought a bucket to bail out the area while the river was still spilling water into Bamboo and what the people needed was "empathy and help to repair to the nearby school for dry ground to spend the night.”