Why we are not prepared for the Rainy Season: There is NO Guarantee for the Rights of the People to Safety and Security

Why we are not prepared for the Rainy Season:
There is NO Guarantee for the Rights of the People
to Safety and Security

The most recent bout of flooding in 11 of the 14 Regional Corporations in Trinidad began on Divali, 5 days ago.
By yesterday, the issues of assisting the citizens who had suffered losses of household and agricultural assets, are facing the possibility of serious health hazards and engaging in the task of mopping up and making their homes fit for habitation have like the flood waters in some areas receded into a place of low priority.
The losses and inconvenience suffered by thousands of people are now submerged by the desperate attempts of the politicians to render the people’s suffering as irrelevant as the causes of the flooding itself.
By today, the agenda is now set by those who wish to distract from the failure of the state to guarantee the right of the people to safety and security even in the context of natural disaster.
Instead, the politicians are engaged in a full-scale ‘war’ to decide who is to blame, who is right or wrong and embroil the people in taking sides of one set of holders of positions of power or the other.
The question of why the water pouring down in the rainy season, every single year is not effectively controlled and the ritual episodes of loss of property and resources prevented is relegated to irrelevance.
Who is to Blame?
Inevitably, the talkshows have spun the issue till the anti-people elements got to the point of blaming the ‘nasty’  or ‘selfish’ people for causing the floods – the people are to blame for this disaster!
The Prime Minister went to the safety of ‘PNM territory’ in the Sangre Grande Corporation to preserve the symbol of the “Prime Minister” – the mythicized being of ‘the man in charge’.
He is photographed hugging and greeting his ‘subjects’ not empathizing with citizens who are victims of another round of distress.
He announces his ‘displeasure’ at the ‘repeated failure’ of the ODPM, but not that of the Regional Corporation in which he is present, and which has also failed to do what is necessary to prevent this constant disruption of the lives of its burgesses.
And surrounded by his Ministers whose Ministries do nothing to prevent the floods or are in charge of the failed ODPM, in the manner of Prime Ministerial-ness, the PM announces “heads will roll”.
Of course, once those heads are not those of the Head of Government and his Cabinet who have ultimate responsibility for guaranteeing the Right of the Citizens to safety and security of themselves and their property.
The Leader of the Opposition, in similar manner, donned her spanking rubber boots and traversed her ‘UNC territory’ to denounce the PM for “offering no comfort” to the flood victims. The mythicized being – the “Opposition Leader” – also has to be preserved.
So, she easily forgets to mention that she was the “Prime Minister” just 24 months earlier and like the ‘man in charge’ she and her Government also failed to do what was necessary to prevent the flooding from continuing.
Another Political Leader jumped in the brew and denounced the PM for failing ‘postponing the Budget exercise’ to go and give the people the impression that he cared, for the sake of preserving the symbol of “Prime Minister”.
So another round of what passes for politics is engaged in – the Opposition (which was just the Government) blames the Government and the PM (as is now his ‘preferred option’) blames the functionaries and promises ‘firm action’.
Eventually, they all blame the ‘nasty people’ who ‘threw plastic bags from Divali’ for bringing this disaster on themselves, even though the floods began before the Deyas were even extinguished by the rain on Divali night.
What is the Issue?
The one thing all of these holders of ‘positions of political power’ and those who wish to hold those very positions one day, the one thing they do is to ensure that they never pose the question – Why is Nothing Done to Prevent the Flooding in the First Place?
In 2017, there are arguments about whether this was the worst flooding we have ever had.
What is the people’s experience? In 1985, there was a flood which cut the island in half for almost 2 whole days; a woman lost her life while trapped in traffic on the Solomon Hochoy Highway; the road on the Eastern End of Piarco airport was impassible for at least 2 days.
In 2017, apart from the needless loss of a life, this bout of flooding is like déjà vu of the 1985 experience.
In reality, as far as putting measures to control the water, NOTHING has been done in over 30 years and more.
The fact is that those who occupy ‘positions of power’ are not concerned with solving this or any other problem so that the lives of the people are really improved.
Only now the Town & Country Officials and the Regional Corporations who have overseen the reckless violation of land use and building rules, for decades are expressing concern about ‘tightening up’.
The Ministry of Works and Transport cannot explain why a robust programme of drainage development and maintenance has never been implemented, no matter who is “in charge”.
The National Security Ministry cannot explain why there is no serious organisation of the population in their communities in the formation of CERT teams or other forms of structured emergency response.
The Planning, Local Government, Land and other Ministries offer no reason why hydrological planning and operational work is not comprehensively and robustly undertaken and reviewed in at least 3-5 year cycles.
No one is seriously examining the effect of the Point Fortin Highway construction and other projects and developments on the drainage systems – natural and man-made.
The State – Government and its agencies – has failed to organise the society to deal with the regular effects of the rainy season.
Providing the Rights of the citizens to Safety and Security in relation to natural phenomena with a guarantee is no more the business of those who hold ‘positions of power’ than guaranteeing that Right in relation to wanton criminality.
Those in ‘positions of power’ are engaged in preserving the mythical symbols of being in ‘positions of power’ and of protecting the special interests they serve than in solving the problems of the people they claim to serve, to empathise with and so on.
The people, not those in or aspiring to be in ‘positions of power’ must set the agenda and ensure that the Rights of the people are guaranteed. Otherwise, repeated disasters are all that the majority of the society will continue to face.
 
Clyde Weatherhead
October 23, 2017