Penal hit by its yearly floods

Several roads in Penal became impassable on Tuesday, leaving people marooned in their homes.

Areas along the Penal Rock Road, including the public cemetery, were partially submerged. Residents said the water totally covered graves and tombstones after heavy overnight rain continued in the morning.

Chairman of the Penal/Debe Regional Corporation (PDRC) Dr Allen Sammy, members of the disaster management unit (DMU) and other officials visited affected areas.

Sammy said flooding, which happens yearly in the area, needs to be addressed comprehensively to end the problem.

"It has to be done comprehensively in an integrated manner, where the community is involved. There must be public education and a collective will to clean all water courses. Until then, it will continue to happen," Sammy said.

He said improper drainage contributes to the flooding. The drainage of major roads falls under the Works Ministry's purview, while minor roads fall under the PDRC.

He said the PDRC is responsible for minor roads and 99 watercourses which workers clean religiously, and the corporation continues to be in disaster mode. Since Monday night, Sammy said, DMU staff had been on alert, and dinghy operators are on standby.

There are two principal watercourses (Curamata and the South Oropouche Rivers) and several subsidiary tributaries that drain the region.

Sammy said workers from the Ministry of Works have also been cleaning the major rivers.

"But they are not cleaning in the manner they ought to be cleaning, which is from the mouth all the way to the source of the problem," Sammy said. "One of the problems is that the decision-making for cleaning drains is not made at the Ministry of Works in the division here. It is done elsewhere."

So far, efforts to decentralise the decision-making back to Penal/Debe have been fruitless.

Alderman Hyacinth Rampersadsingh also visited and shared the same views about flooding.

At Moolchan Trace, 76-year-old Samdaye Mootilal, who lives alone, feared she would die on Monday night.

"I was unable to sleep. The rain was pounding on the galvanise. I thought the house was going to break down. The partition was shaking. I was praying to God," Mootilal said. "I have a pacemaker and I started to get pain in my chest. More the rains fell hard, the more my chest was pumping. I thought it was my last night, I was so scared."

During the night, she took a tablet for her pain.

Murky water filled her entire yard and she sat in the gallery waiting for the water to subside.

"Every year it floods and sometimes it is worse than this. My two (adult) children called me for the morning and told me to take care. I cannot do anything," Mootilal said.

One of her neighbours, Curtis Kalipersad, said for the past two years, every time rain falls, the area floods. The water used to be on the road, but now it comes inside.

At Penal Rock Road near Crawford Trace, Charles John said water rose quickly, causing damage to a washing machine, which floated away. He recalled that last year the flooding was worse.

"I lost a couch, a stove, a deep-freezer, and a TV when floodwater came in the house. Some people got mattresses and other help,"John told Newsday. "I never get compensated, but the local representative gave a case of bottled water."