Moonilal: Greenvale flooded because Govt failed to do works

OPPOSITION MP Dr Roodal Moonilal says the severe flooding in Greenvale, La Horquetta was due to lack of maintenance and drainage work by Government and he was concerned it would happen again.

“Had work been done on the ground, we would not have had the calamity Government is now crying crocodile tears about,” he charged.

He was speaking yesterday at a media conference at the Office of the Opposition Leader, Port of Spain.

Moonilal said he had remained quiet on the issue of Greenvale for several days because he did not think it was proper to raise political issues when people were underwater and because he was waiting for the Government to blame the UNC.“I did not have to wait long.”

Moonilal said he heard Planning Minister Camille Robinson-Regis’s statement on Greenvale, and described as erroneous, almost obscene and outlandish claims the PNM administration did not build Greenvale. He said he was flattered to think that in three or four years the People’s Partnership could build 500 houses on the site. He recalled when he became housing minister in 2010, there were a number of HDC estates which had problems, including Retrench Village, Carlsen Field and Greenvale.

He referred to correspondence between what was then the National Housing Authority (NHA) and the Environmental Management Authority in 2005 in which the NHA said there would be no impact on existing or proposed developments because of location and topography.

He reported the project started before the PP administration, which came and found two contractors operating — Trinity Housing and Mootilal Ramhit – and one had completed 90 per cent and the other about 80 per cent. He said $230 million had already been “planted on the ground” and the People’s Partnership completed the outfitting of the site.

Moonilal said the People’s Partnership worked on drainage, ponds and external drainage work, which was very critical for Housing Development Corporation sites.

It was important, he added, to do drainage works and box drains for fenceline communities to ensure neighbouring HDC sites did not flood. He said while the Prime Minister said the flooding was due to unusual rainfall, in fact it was due to “unusual governance.”

He stressed the HDC knew three days before about the coming heavy rains and asked whether it did any desilting, fix the pumps or cleared the retention ponds.

Answering his own question, he said, “Absolutely nothing was done.” Moonilal pointed out from 2010-2015 there was no flooding in Greenvale of this magnitude, and there was also no flooding up to 2018. The level of flooding, he argued, was due to the lack of maintenance work in Greenvale and other areas as well. If there was a regular programme of desilting and dredging, he said, there would be no flooding.