PM: No need for offence at watercourse occupancy comments

THE PRIME Minister said there was no need for people to be offended by comments about people building on watercourses.

Dr Rowley was speaking yesterday at a media conference at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann's about flooding in the wake of Tropical Storm Karen last week.

He said there was a need to minimise occupation of watercourses, which guaranteed some dislocation in the rainy season. He recalled during his trip to New York for the UN General Assembly he was asked what laws would be passed to address this, but he thinks what is needed is to enforce the current laws.

"We have an enforcement issue. And in the absence of enforcement, effective enforcement, it comes as though we don't have the laws."

Asked about the criticism of National Security Minister Stuart Young after his questioning why the media, in their flood coverage, did not ask people why they built their homes on natural ponds, Rowley replied, "I do not know that anybody should be upset about that."

He said Town and Country Planning officials would say some applications for building would not be approved. He added there are large parts of the country that are watercourses and they overlap with occupancy and human development.

"So that is not something one should get offended about. But of course if a politician says it or a minister says, then of course it automatically attracts a certain amount of response. The question is whether it is true or not."

He also commented on plastic containers seen in watercourses during Tropical Storm Karen.

"I saw one or two watercourses in some communities that are a disgrace. There was a picture with a six-foot channel that you could walk on the plastic containers in there. There was another one I saw which was blocked by tonnes of bamboo – which didn't just fall in the river, this is bamboo that people cut upstream. Once the river pick it up, it gets blocked and the water can't pass. There were also reports of fridges and mattresses and so on. So we need to keep working on this issue."

He was also asked about leaving the country for the UN in New York when TT was bracing for Karen and what determined whether a prime minister would leave or stay.

He replied: "It depends on the scale of the event. We had everything in place to treat with the feeder bands of Tropical Storm Karen. And even though I was not here physically, I was continuously updated."

Asked if he suffered any damage to his home at Mason Hall, Tobago, Rowley replied he did not. He said there were one or two communities in Trinidad where the water was heavier and the first responders and government agencies intervened.

"We were a lot better prepared this year than we were last year."

He said during the dry season this year he personally inspected some sites and extensive work had been done in the Caroni River.