Sinanan: Road, river works in 2020

WORKS and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan has said there will be an aggressive programme of river de-silting and road repairs in the new year.

Sinanan told Newsday, the programme will run for eight to nine months.

In terms of de-silting and river works, Sinanan explained these activities begin in the dry season and are completed before the start of the wet season.

Some of the river de-silting and dredging which took place this year, Sinanan said, reduced some of the 2019 flooding.

He lamented that because of the volume of rainfall the country had experienced within the last month, not all of the flooding was negated, and pointed out that in some places, half a month's worth of rain fell within the space of a couple hours, leading to flooding.

He also said the ministry has identified roads in need of urgent repair and these will be dealt with over the course of next year.

Sinanan said his ministry completed 400 infrastructural projects this year and hopes to repeat or improve on that milestone in 2020.

He also said repairs were done on a road in Chatham that was damaged during the recent flooding, but there was a problem with a burst water line over the weekend. Sinanan said that problem has since been addressed.