Gills, plastic furniture, and other adaptations

LAST WEEK'S flash flooding in parts of north Trinidad shocked many. As Facebook reportage reached fever pitch, videos of a Cocorite highway submerged on both sides prompted incredulous reactions. "I never see Cocorite flood so in all my years."

In Diego Martin where the day can go from dry to muddy deluge in 60 seconds, there were also videos hinting at the ravages of fleeting showers. Some days before, residents of Arouca recoiled in horror as vehicles and homes were submerged in turbid, fast-flowing water. Similarly, many said flooding on this scale in that part of the country was unprecedented.

Sensing the knife needed twisting, a ministry official suggested that citizens need to adapt to flooding. Regrettably pinpointing the “modern way” of fabric furniture, the call-it-as-I-see-it ministry spokesman recommended that people get a different furniture – whatever that means.

The idea of adaptation in a world of wild weather events is timely. However, adaptation doesn't mean abdication. Government agencies and citizens have a collective responsibility to combat flooding and develop creative ways to minimise the impacts of capricious, increasingly intense weather patterns.

In 2005, when Hurricane Katrina made landfall in the US, it wasn't a particularly powerful storm. As a Category 3 system, winds at 120 miles packed a respectable punch. However, it wasn't the fierce winds that wreaked the most havoc – not directly anyway. Storm surge found weaknesses in a number of aging levees.

New Orleans, a natural basin, much of which is below sea level, was quickly and devastatingly inundated. Katrina destroyed entire communities and displaced hundreds of thousands of people. Property damage was in the billions. What followed was years of introspection on why flood mitigation measures failed so spectacularly. Questions were asked about what could have been done differently.

Commenting on the tragedy years after, president Barack Obama said, "What started as a natural disaster became a man-made disaster – a failure of the government to look out for its own citizens."

This, ladies and gentlemen, is where we are today and where we've been for quite some time. Politicians have famously accused flood victims of “building in flood plains and lagoons.” This is a narrative that plays quite swimmingly with people enamoured of divisive politics and racist tropes. It doesn't matter that such criticisms don't hold water in places like Arouca which is neither lagoon nor flood plain.

We have a practised culture of absolving the Government of any responsibility in addressing perennial flooding. Many seem content to boil these periodic cataclysms down to acts of God or the reckless proclivities of man, such as building on river banks and indiscriminate disposal of outdated furniture.

Flooding is caused by several factors, each requiring different coping strategies. It's also helpful to have an understanding of settlement patterns in TT to dispel the notion that people deliberately build homes in flood-prone areas because they find happiness in victimhood.

For instance, in the era of indentureship East Indian labourers were offered small land allotments under various usurious conditions. Invariably, they were only afforded the option of the least arable and most undesirable plots which were, more often than not, waterlogged and flood-prone.

These were the properties bequeathed to future generations because land ownership was the only legitimate means to build “wealth.” The less well-heeled in society rarely have a choice over where they make their homes.

Additionally, as a small island, there is only so much space available for housing that's out of the path of perennial flooding.

Ideally, there should be rigorous enforcement governing hillside development, urban planning, and deforestation to mitigate our impact on the surrounding environment.

Additionally, public infrastructure works should keep pace with population growth and density to account for greater runoff. Older drainage networks can scarcely accommodate the volumes of water produced by more buildings and streets.

In tandem with policy enforcement, there should be routine maintenance of rivers and drainage channels. They should be kept free of overgrowth to ensure nothing impedes the free flow of water.

There are agencies tasked with the responsibility of achieving all of the above. Talk of adaptation to flooding coming from a senior government minister is complete nonsense and, therefore, in keeping with what we would expect from those “in charge.”

Natural disasters are unavoidable – excusing government ineptitude and abdication only compounds those disasters. While we wait for a furniture store to introduce a line of flood-proof settees, and to grow some gills, perhaps the people in our state agencies could adapt and grow a conscience – that might help them perform as they're paid to.