South Oropouche fathers spend Father's Day reinforcing Woodland river bank

A GROUP of fathers spent their day on Sunday giving back rather than receiving gifts.

They are members of the South Oropouche Riverine Flood Action Group and spent their day reinforcing the bank of one of the rivers in Woodland which collapsed and caused massive flooding last week.

President of the group Edward Moodie, his son and volunteers filled sand bags and piled old truck tyres tor a retention wall. He said Sunday was not about receiving gifts but giving back

Moodie said the retention wall was the best gift for the community as it will not only help with flood prevention but was also saving the environment since those 500 or so truck tyres would have been discarded as rubbish.

Moodie told Newsday on Sunday, over 5,000 bags of soil were being packed to take upriver along with the tyres.

“We are going to level the bank, put down the truck tires, stack them, one of top each other, in a staggered fashion.

“We are going to screw them down and then fill the dirt (sand bags) inside of this. On top of that, when we are finished, we are going to plant vetiver grass which goes down 12 feet in the ground and this would help stabilise the entire structure.”

He suggests vetiver grass be used by the drainage division of the Minstry of Works to stabilise river banks.

“Banks are being built in the rainy season and they are falling apart.”

Moody said the stacking of the sand bags and tyres will begin on Labour Day on 500 feet of the river bank in the first instance.

“Right now we are cutting the narrow river bank right as we prepare to go in. This is a four-stage operation. We have guys right now loading the bags, bringing them here (to the river). We are stacking them to load onto the boats, then we will take them upstream where we will have another crew unpack.

Stressing the importance of safety in the operation, he said the group will be overseeing the whole process to ensure it is laid down in keeping with best-engineering standards because they don’t want a further breach.

Moodie said he hopes this initiative would send a clear message that citizens need to stand up, recycle, protect the environment and alleviate flooding.

He called on Works Minister Rohan Sinanan to clearly state what short, medium and long term plans he has for addressing flooding that are recurrent in the South Oropouche Basin.

He said the retention wall previously build by the ministry has crumbled and suggested construction of similar-type walls from as far as Moruga.

Moodie also wants stricter legislation for law breakers of the river courses.

“Just across the road we have people who live inside of the river and they have electricity and water. Who gave them that? Not the State?

“We need to start rethinking and talking about where we are going with this whole thing.”