00:00As the country clamors for flooding solutions, the Ministry of Works and Infrastructure is seeking to assure the public that it continues to explore and utilize all viable options.
00:13This after one civil engineer asserted that his flooding solutions have saved Bamboo No. 3 from flooding.
00:20His intervention alone, that one drain, is not the sole salvation of Bamboo No. 3. It has to be noted. It has to work as a very, very small drain compared to the large V drain we had to do a couple years ago that pulls the water effectively to the pump house because if water was not leveled, that drain alongside the highway was earthen and a lot of the flow was not there.
00:46So we had to create a grade to pull the water to the pump house. So saying that his one intervention nine years ago saved Bamboo No. 3 from flooding this time is not very accurate because if it was there all the time, why was Bamboo No. 3 flooding?
01:01The drainage director says the Ministry has been aware of Mr. Dalchan's custom solution, but notes that his design is a variation of existing technology, which the Ministry stresses it also has access to.
01:17Tide Flex is a brand. Tide Flex is available internationally and you can order it. They would have installed those same Tide Flex valves along the Manzan area and quickly realized that it wasn't suitable for that environment because we had to clear it on a daily basis.
01:38Because when it came, the tide came up, it clogged, it broke and it kind of, not broke, sorry, my mistake. It blocked the mouth of the valve so the valve couldn't open and the rotary was flooding.
01:51As for the issues raised with respect to sluice and the flap gates, the Ministry notes all systems have their strengths and their weaknesses.
02:01The flap gates that we have and the sluice gates that we have, the effective area of water that comes in, right? And it's able to escape in a faster period of time. It's why we sometimes choose those options instead of those check valves.
02:17So if it's not applicable, we wouldn't tend to use it. And also the price is very prohibitive sometimes, right? So we have to balance what we have, what is functional and what is available. Value for money is always something we want to use.
02:33The Ministry stresses that all systems require maintenance and says it already had plans to visit and service the compromised flap gates, which were highlighted in the initial report.
02:46Renessa Cutting, TV6 News.
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