? Flooding in T&T

Flooding in T&T

By Denzel Lamont

How Australia prevents storm drain trash from reaching the rivers, lakes and ocean

Recent flooding in Trinidad and Tobago has been caused by a deadly cocktail of issues, namely: 

  1. Poor planning by developers

Most of the flooding occurred in areas which are known as flood plains. When building in these areas, it is recommended that stilts are used to avoid flooding.


  1. Lack of Building Regulation Enforcement

Proper building regulation enforcement would ensure housing developments have proper drainage arrangements. This would have helped prevent this flooding from being as damaging as it was.


  1. Littering

Littering is one of the main causes of flooding in Trinidad. It places further strain on already poorly planned flood alleviation arrangements by blocking watercourses. Thousands of plastic bottles along with various other household items could be seen blocking waterways. This is a societal problem.


Most importantly, this was a natural disaster. Hence even with proper planning, it may not have been avoided. We may not have been able to completely stop it from happening. As we see, places such as Houston experience similar flooding. However, we may be able to reduce the devastation it causes. Overall, we must simply do better with proper planning, enforcing building laws and stop littering!