Flood prevention works stepped up ahead of rainy season

The Min­istry of Works and In­fra­struc­ture has in­ten­si­fied de­silt­ing op­er­a­tions and drainage as­sess­ments across sev­er­al flood-prone ar­eas as prepa­ra­tions con­tin­ue for the 2026 rainy sea­son.

In a se­ries of up­dates post­ed on Face­book, the min­istry said teams have been car­ry­ing out de­silt­ing works along the San Juan Riv­er at John­ny King Street, Aranguez, aimed at im­prov­ing wa­ter flow and re­duc­ing the risk of flood­ing in sur­round­ing com­mu­ni­ties.

Heavy equip­ment was al­so de­ployed at the site as crews con­tin­ued clear­ing ac­cu­mu­lat­ed silt and de­bris from the wa­ter­course.

The min­istry said de­silt­ing ac­tiv­i­ties are un­der­way at the San Juan Riv­er to sup­port im­proved drainage in prepa­ra­tion for the rainy sea­son, with work al­so con­tin­u­ing down­stream from Con­cord Road to­ward the Arthur Lok Jack cam­pus as part of on­go­ing riv­er main­te­nance ef­forts.

It added that de­silt­ing is in progress along the St. Joseph Riv­er in Val­sayn North. Works be­gan fur­ther up­stream in the vicin­i­ty of Priest Hill, St. Joseph, and are pro­gress­ing down­stream to the Cipri­ani Labour Col­lege, as part of ef­forts to im­prove flow and drainage ef­fi­cien­cy.

Ad­di­tion­al de­silt­ing works are un­der­way along the par­al­lel drain on the Pri­or­i­ty Bus Route in Laven­tille as part of ef­forts to im­prove drainage ca­pac­i­ty and wa­ter flow in the area.

The min­istry al­so re­port­ed that de­silt­ing op­er­a­tions are con­tin­u­ing in the vicin­i­ty of the VM­COTT drain, where crews are work­ing to clear ob­struc­tions and im­prove drainage flow.

At Bam­boo No. 3 along the Sir Solomon Ho­choy High­way, Works and In­fra­struc­ture Min­is­ter Jear­lean John and tech­ni­cal teams vis­it­ed on­go­ing de­silt­ing works, with of­fi­cials al­so as­sess­ing the readi­ness of the pump­ing sta­tion on site, which trans­fers ex­cess wa­ter from the high­way chan­nel in­to the Ca­roni Riv­er dur­ing heavy rain­fall.

The min­istry said the Bam­boo No. 2 pump­ing sta­tion al­so re­mains crit­i­cal in pro­tect­ing sur­round­ing com­mu­ni­ties, as it pumps ex­cess wa­ter in­to the St. Joseph Riv­er dur­ing in­tense rain­fall events.

In Pe­nal, work­ers at the Tul­sa Trace pump­site are op­er­at­ing the pump sys­tem de­signed to man­age wa­ter flow dur­ing pe­ri­ods of ad­verse weath­er. The pump trans­fers ex­cess wa­ter in­to the near­by New Cut Chan­nel, help­ing to re­duce flood risk and pro­tect sur­round­ing com­mu­ni­ties.

An NRD work­er was al­so seen car­ry­ing out drain clean­ing ac­tiv­i­ties in Pe­nal as part of the min­istry’s on­go­ing flood mit­i­ga­tion and rainy sea­son pre­pared­ness ef­forts.

The Na­tion­al Re­cruit­ment Dri­ve (NRD) has al­so been de­ployed to the T&TEC Main Drain in Siparia, where work­ers are clear­ing over­grown veg­e­ta­tion and as­sist­ing with drainage main­te­nance as part of wider flood mit­i­ga­tion works.

Min­is­ter Jear­lean John, along­side tech­ni­cal teams from the min­istry, al­so vis­it­ed the Pow­er­Gen Drain in Siparia as flood mit­i­ga­tion and wet sea­son pre­pared­ness ef­forts con­tin­ue across the coun­try.

The up­dates form part of the min­istry’s wider flood mit­i­ga­tion and drainage man­age­ment ef­forts ahead of ex­pect­ed heavy rain­fall ac­tiv­i­ty.