Engineering officials and some Manzanilla residents said yesterday said it might be more feasible to leave the dilapidated Manzanila-Mayaro Main Road as is and chart a new route further inland. This was the thinking even as officials from the Ministry of Works and Infrastructure used a heavy duty water pump to siphon out flood waters from the Nariva Swamp and roadway into the sea.
Speaking with the media, ministry technocrats said the current impassable roadway connecting Mayaro to Manzanilla should be left to the sea and a new road should be built further inland to prevent any re-occurrence of the damage caused to both the road and residents’ properties by last weekend’s flood waters.
One pump yesterday began spewing 18,000 gallons of fresh water a minute into the sea. Ministry officials said the pump would be taken to various parts of the broken roadway to assist in channeling the water out to sea. Officials dug a three-feet deep catchment to collect the flood waters before they began pumping. Within minutes some of the waters that flowed along the roadway was gone. When the water is removed officials said they would make a further determination on the best way forward.
Meanwhile, the heavy rains which contributed to the collapse of the Manzanilla-Mayaro Road last weekend also destroyed 1,200 acres of crops planted by 40 farmers in Plum Mitan. The serene village just before Manzanilla is home to generations of farmers, residents told the T&T Guardian. Farmer Harry Sieunarine, who said he had been farming for over 40 years, said last week’s flooding started when the Jagrooma River burst its banks.
He said it was the worst he had ever seen and he lost all his produce on the three-acre parcel of land on which he planted. Moonan Ramtahal said he could not salvage anything and lost some $30,000 in produce. He too said it was the worst flooding he had ever seen, adding his crops were ready for reaping when the floods came.
Farmers said officials from the Ministry of Agriculture visited on Wednesday and assessed the damage but the farmers complained the estimates used by the officials were outdated.