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  • 1 year ago
Opposition leader Kamla Persad Bissessar is calling on the government to declare the Penal Debe region a high priority relief area following a devastating impact to the area after prolonged rainfall on Tuesday.

Transcript
00:00Opposition leader Kamala Prasad Bisesa is calling on the government to declare
00:04the Penal Debi region a high-priority relief area following a devastating
00:09impact to the area after prolonged rainfall on Tuesday. Speaking at her
00:14constituency office in Penal, the MP for Separia lamented the struggles faced by
00:19hundreds of residents who were left stranded, marooned or whose homes were
00:24severely flooded. I want to make calls to central government to urgently
00:30declare the Penal Debi region a high-priority relief area, a high-priority
00:36relief area and for central government to deploy the necessary resources. The
00:43opposition leader together with corporation employees and other UN CMPs
00:47joined by army personnel went into heavily affected areas in Penal
00:51distributing food and cleaning supplies. Prasad Bisesa says one of the main
00:56factors contributing to the effects seen today is illegal developments. One of the
01:02key reasons for this type of destructive flooding is illegal backfilling of lands,
01:09illegal diverting of water courses, illegal dumping of garbage and
01:15illegal developments by some persons and some entities. So whilst it's very easy to
01:20blame the regional corporation and or the central government, both must share
01:24in the blame. She says it is unfair that the majority suffers due to the acts of
01:30a few and called on the government to do more to clamp down on such activities.
01:35The government and relevant authorities must take a firm, must take firm urgent
01:42action to address this matter. I therefore call on all regional
01:46corporations with the full backing of the local government ministry to do
01:50these things. One, issue stop work notices on illegal developments. Issue stop work
01:57notices on illegal developments. Ramp up garbage collection. Identify all
02:04encroachments and realignments of water courses. And four, launch legal action
02:10against all offenders. Well tonight local government minister Faris Al Rawis
02:16says his ministry is on top of the flooding situation in Pinaldebi.
02:21Since the release of the Meteorological Services announcement yesterday as to
02:27localize flooding, has been in the middle of coordination together with the
02:32Trinidad and Tobago Defense Force, the Office of Disaster Preparedness, the
02:37Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Social Development and the Disaster
02:42Management Units of the ministry and of the corporation that is the PDRC as well
02:48as neighboring corporations. In this regard we have distributed and caused
02:54the distribution of hundreds of sandbags, relief efforts, mobilization of the
03:00movement of children who were temporarily trapped in their schools
03:04yesterday. He says he rejects a claim by the chairman of the Pinaldebi regional
03:10corporation that tens of thousands of people are affected by the flooding.
03:16I note today that Mr. Gautam Murad seemed to have found the lost city of
03:22Atlantis, claiming that 10,000 homes were affected and underwater. I also note that
03:28the leader of the opposition claimed that she had tried to reach me. I can
03:32categorically state that so far our estimate is that approximately 400 homes
03:38are affected by the waters but not damaged necessarily. Second, that I have
03:45received no messages from the leader of the opposition in relation to any
03:49aspects of contact in this matter. I of course would always welcome her call.
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