Making of a catastrophe

THE EDITOR: During the rainy season last year, the lower section of the Oropouche Lagoon, particularly in the vicinity of Pluck Road, experienced severe flooding on several occasions, due to the persistent rains which produced a volume of water that the rivers could not discharge immediately.

Indeed, there were 14 floods last year and as the rains persisted into this year, even in mid February there was a flood in the area drained by the Cunupia River.

This river is a main watercourse that drains about 15 square miles of land. It rises from a perpetual spring in the Siparia forest reserve and flows north, crossing the Siparia Old Road in the vicinity of Massahood Junction.

It enters the Oropouche Lagoon in the vicinity of Ramroopsingh Trace, and flows parallel to Ackbar Trace, to its outfall in the Duckpond River, which flows to the gates at St John’s Trace.

These gates regulate the flow of a vast amount of water from as far as east as SS Erin Road and from areas south and west from where rivers pour into the extreme southern sector of the Oropouche Lagoon.

Recently, after an interval of about four years, the Ministry of Works deployed an excavator that did some work on he Cunupia River, in a sector where no work was needed for the channel was clear. However, the flow of the river had ceased since February, and the Drainage Division, Penal, was informed of it. The work done by the excavator left the problem unsolved.

Then an excavator cleared the Nagessar channel, a tributary of the Cunapo. The basin of the Nagessar, which was dry, was flooded to a depth of two feet after a single shower of rain as water from the stagnant Cunapo poured into the tributary stream, as for some reason the main river had ceased flowing.

The Drainage Division, in response to complaints, said some work would be done on the lower courts.

It is clear, now that we are fully into the rainy season, that the basin of the Cunapo River and all its tributaries will experience flooding on a catastrophic scale.

DEORAJ M POPATLALL, Siparia