Tackling Flooding In Penal/Debe Before The 2026 Rainy Season

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00][music] As communities across Penal Deay prepare for the upcoming rainy season, major flood mitigation efforts are already underway through a collaborative initiative involving the Pinal Deb Regional Corporation and [music] Wasa.

[00:00:16]Under the direction of the honorable Vari Padarath, Minister of Public Utilities, the program focuses on the desilting of rivers, water courses, and underground drainage systems throughout Penile [music] and neighboring communities, areas that have historically face severe flooding during periods of heavy rainfall and spring tides. While these works are aimed at restoring drainage capacity, improving water flow, reducing the risk of overflowing rivers and block drains, and ultimately protecting homes, businesses, crops, and livelihoods across the region. Well, joining me this morning to discuss these efforts, the challenges facing the region, and the broader strategy for flood preparedness is Mr. Gouta Maharaj, chairman of the Pinal Debe regional cooperation. Chairman Maharaj, thank you for being here this morning.

[00:01:04]>> Thank you. Thank you for having me. Good morning. Good morning all.

[00:01:07]>> Well, uh, Chairman Mrage, you know, residents in Pinal and surrounding communities experience flooding almost every year. I saw you've been doing some research on the ground to figure out where the flooding comes from. We saw this on your on your Facebook profile.

[00:01:22]So, tell us a little bit about the flooding situation over the years.

[00:01:27]>> Well, definitely Pinal De, the region which is termed the south or river basin. Pinale bi sits in the south of Rupert River basin is known for its very disastrous flooding. Uh that is the reason for the early approach and the collaborative approach. Collaborative as simple as it may seem is really one of the key aspects that will bring success.

[00:01:50]This year we have the ministry of uh works and infrastructure on board. We have the ministry of public utilities as you mentioned on board. Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Planning, the Penal Debia Regional Corporation and the neighboring corporations coordinated by the Minister of Rural Development and uh local government. So it is a combined effort which means a lot because it means that the efforts can be streamlined, coordinated, can be added.

[00:02:18]So it is all much more and also it means that with the local government collaborating with the other ministries the people themselves are involved via the local government representatives so that very good feedback very good uh submissions very good inputs are coming towards the works that are being carried out. Of course, this area historically has suffered uh extensively in the Rock Road area, in the Clark Road area, in the Barakpo area and in the Woodland area and some parts of Debe. So that it requires the effort that I just described. getting specifically into the efforts, the one that you would have first touched on that the minister of ministry of public utilities uh is involved is the one that is uh generating some excitement in terms of this very uh UFO type looking truck and equipment that is in Pinal in Debe in in in Rock Road and Barako. It will be moving to also where it is doing the underground culverts, the one that are boxed, not the so so much the open drains, the ones that are have been covered and difficult to access. And this technology is getting in there with high pressure jets over 2,000 PSI and breaking up those solid uh uh uh blockages that have been there for for decades, I I would say, and then it vacuums it out. So it uses a vacuum technology that sucks it out per saying local language and this is already bringing tremendous help. It has started in the penal town center. It has moved to the Clark Road area and yesterday it was in the area where the Rock Taxist stand is and it will be continuing. Many many businesses in the area. Many people are very very elated, very excited, very happy to know that this has been brought to take care of a problem that has has been existing since as far as we can recall and it has not been tackled. So this is a very new one for this region is very much welcome. Also the other area that has uh uh been providing a lot of support and has has kicked off a couple of months ago is the open spaces program. This is where the large cutting teams and the large cleaning teams are deployed to the various areas, deployed to public spaces, deployed to to to streets to to to the back roads and all of that. Uh the flexibility of that program allows you to take it anywhere at any time so that you can operate on an emergency basis. It is coordinated directly with the disaster management unit. That is the good news in terms of that setup so that it can be used for flood mitigation. It is one of what I would say is the upfront programs because it takes care before the flood come of one of the the the very very important areas of blockages that are due to garbage and due to uh uh uh cutings and trees and all of that. So this is working. uh this this particular area also requires cooperation with the the general public because uh it deals with garbage collection but garbage collection starts first with uh with the garbage finding itself into the waterways or into the public spaces. So we are having resident groups. Uh we have been in the Palm Park area and the resident group came out there and is working collaboratively also because they are also very much happy that this program has been deployed in this manner.

[00:05:41]>> Yeah. Now Mr. >> We also >> yeah I I I know that uh before you continue apart from the heavy rainfall I just want to ask you a little bit about the spring tides. I know that those also impact the flooding in South Trinidad.

[00:05:55]Um can you explain a little bit about that?

[00:05:59]>> Yes. So I'll I'll give the geography quickly so that uh a listener can understand the the the flooding in the penal de region. The rivers actually start on our boundary with Maruga. So one can and envision the the the distance that it it travels from the Maruga boundary uh to the west coast to the Gordino. So that through woodland.

[00:06:22]So it passes through rock road uh penal dbe San Francique Clark road parts of barakur and into woodland. So understanding this the outfall is at the sea and the sea the high tide the controls that backflow per se so that whenever there's a high tide the the water backs up to understand it very simply way inland in in in fact there's there's there's salinity way into the day areas the aspect of the engineering side to to to to to solve this or to to mitigate this over the years would have been the floodgates which have been built some time ago but the floodgates are not operating optimal so that I I I actually was getting into that that one of the engineering inputs that we'll be having is to look at the operation of the floodgates the 14 gate in particular and as we speak today a site visit is being done and preparations are being made to take out the obsolete floodgates the residents of San Franc and Rock Road and those areas will be jumping in the air. They will be so happy to hear that this obstacle which has been in the river, the ones that are obsolete, will now be removed and will not be impeding the free flow of water anymore. This certainly deserves commendation. I wish that team the best this morning. I'm not there. Councelor Cichan and other councilors are taking charge with that particular effort and the operation. So it's two-part with regards to floodgate removal of the obsolete ones and the ones that are needed to get them working and definitely yes the high tide poses that problem and that is why I'll get into some of the engineering works now which are the big ticket items that will be tackled again for after need much needed a very long time. So some very very exciting news for Penal Deb is that we we are now looking at and we have on the table the aspect of deeper engineering type solutions. In fact, the SOB, which is the South Pucha project, uh the the the UWI and other engineering expertise agencies are combining their efforts to look at deeper engineering solutions such as this will entail what the normal agencies on a day-to-day basis cannot do. The river flows, the river beds because we do have elevated riverbed phenomena in the new cut channel at the woodland area which is the major outfall. the river bank strengthening, building up and and strengthening of river embankment. And the good news is what is on the table is one that the residents themselves have been asking and suggesting for a very long time. Detention and retention ponds. This is good news because this is what people have been asking and suggesting. The ministries and ourselves have listened and we are approaching that. In fact, we have up to yesterday we have been looking at the state land maps, looking at land. This is what you were speaking of earlier where you said that I was doing this research. It was on the ground research. It was actually walking uphill and downhill. The source of these rivers which is the Queen arm main ridge. It is astounding to to share that the water from Quarry village which is really uh miles away. One would not imagine the quarry village water and the quam water reaches the the woodland area that I'm speaking about through the kura river through the corampo river which drains the mendes village through the rivers that come from kari passing delpino ranch they all come and reach that particular San Franc what we call the threemouth area that is where you have the confluence of the kura river the black water channel and the south roach the korata river which runs from rock road the beginning hagat trace on the boundary with maru A finds its way all the way to Dave. This is a very very long huge river. So that engineering deeper engineering big ticket items. The good news is after a long long long wait a long dry spell of attention we will now have that taking place as we speak works are being done in that area.

[00:10:36]>> Also in addition to that the river cleaning which is the most basic thing that has been missing. The river cleaning has started. Two areas in the Komata River has started by the Ministry of Works. They are the large excavators.

[00:10:49]Many a times you would have hear me making the call, making the plea uh for the large excavators.

[00:10:56]Large machines are in the region. Now, if you drive in Goodman where the Pudai Lagoon outfall meets the the Corumata, you will see the machines. If you go to the upper rock area, you will see the machines. If you go to the the uh the the the the Kura River in the San Francique side, you will see machines working there. There's also plans between now and the next upcoming weeks approximately nine other areas you'll see machines coming on the Nagisa channel in Rock Road, the John Lewis channel in the Clark Road area, the Jack Nyron in the Clark Road area and again a lot of focus on the tree mount area where all of the water converges the south and we have the Ministry of Agriculture coming on with their machines to start in the Chowry channel and to start in the Puda Lagon an area where farming is significantly affected.

[00:11:49]It is the food basket of this particular area in addition with some parts of Montiablo new the new the grand stress area and so on. We have tored we have been on the ground. The the machines coming is just not a statement in itself. The fact is that this time around the scope has been developed where trees that have been there sitting for decades will be removed. There will be widening of the channel and there'll also be wares um wares where the river will be widened to a point similar to a pond so that it can have residual time for the water before it rushes down to the the woodland area and the outfall area. So a lot of thought a lot of input from the residents a lot of engineering a lot of collaboration is making this approach significantly different at the calop pumps area which is again the outfall that rarely the major flooding is. We have all of those pumps already serviced and working. These are large pumps. We have a shift system in place there that is working that is well manned so that it means that when the car pump needs to come on we have suffered from delays and these delays between the tides that you spoke of are significant. Even if it's just a couple hours delay in those pumps coming on. So those large huge pumps at the the free mouth site they have been serviced and the shift system has been manned now so that it will come on as needed when needed. This is very good news for the residents there. They have been suggesting it. In fact there has been actually sometimes people have attempted to start those pumps when those shifts were not man. So all of that is now taken care of. They're very happy. We have been working with them all week in terms of having that system up and running.

[00:13:25]>> Yeah. Well, thank you very much, chairman, for joining us this morning, giving us that update. Um, you know, hopefully this uh this rainy season will be will be better for the uh residents of the Penal Debate Regional Corporation. So, thank you very much.

[00:13:38]Have a great day and we'll talk to you soon.

[00:13:40]>> Thank you very much.

[00:13:41]>> All right, that was uh the chairman of the Penal Deb Regional Corporation, Mr. Gouta Maharaj giving us an update on that flood mitigation in the uh communities and um you know hopefully other communities will start to do the same thing especially those who are floodprone with the rainy season officially Here.