(Trinidad Express) Starting next week, the Port of Spain City Corporation will begin its drive to combat flooding in the capital by cleaning the city’s underground drains.
Port of Spain Mayor Keron Valentine made the announcement last week, as he announced a “clean city” campaign to beautify and enhance Port of Spain.
People were stranded for several hours on Saturday after a heavy downpour resulted in flooding throughout the capital.
The city came to a virtual standstill, as pedestrians sought shelter wherever they could find it and traffic along Independence Square slowed to a crawl.
Part of South Quay was also under water, and flooding was reported at Tragarete Road and areas in Diego Martin and St James. Food wrappers, bottles, cans, fast food boxes and other debris littered downtown Port of Spain when the water subsided.
On Saturday, chief executive of the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management Dr Stephen Ramroop told the Sunday Express cleaning the drainage system throughout the city was indeed a necessity, but it would take more than cleaning drains to solve the problem.
He said there was need for a public awareness campaign and a total culture shift to curb littering.
He said there was also need for strict enforcement of the Litter Act.
“We need to start fining people for littering. I have actually seen people in Port of Spain throwing cans and bottles on the ground although there are receptacles close to them,” he said.
“Wherever they eat they just drop the things from it, and that is the same set of litter that is coming back to clog the small drains. And when the water rises up and moves on to the streets… they want the authorities to come and move them out.”
