A day after torrential weekend rains swamped parts of Barbados and left homes and roads under water, Deputy Prime Minister Santia Bradshaw promised that the government will move “aggressively” to fast-track long-delayed flood relief works across the island.
As the record rainfall exposed persistent weaknesses across several communities, she told reporters the government had taken residents’ concerns seriously and had already advanced major flood mitigation designs to the construction stage.
The deputy prime minister joined emergency management officials on a tour of flood-hit areas, including Maycocks Terrace in St Lucy.
She said: “As it relates to the flooding in a number of areas, we have taken on board the concerns of a number of the residents across the country and for the first time we have seven flood engineering designs actually being done with a view to being in the early part of the year, having a number of those locations actually fully constructed in terms of the wells and the drainage designs.”
Calling the work “significant”, Bradshaw noted that the affected sites span multiple administrations and could not be viewed through a political lens.
“These are long-standing issues that have crossed both political parties, because when it comes to these types of issues, politics cannot play a part in addressing these problems and we’ve made sure that we have outsourced the works, from whether it is Goodland Gardens to Trents in St James, Ashdeane Village, Martindale’s Road, we’re trying to make sure that our flood engineering designs are done with a view to being able to start construction.”
But the deputy prime minister cautioned that engineering solutions alone cannot overcome poor public habits. She suggested that Sunday’s destructive flooding underscored the serious impact of illegal dumping on the island’s drainage network.
She said: “Now while that is good in a sense, the reality is that we are also seeing that littering in the country has also caused a number of the challenges that we are encountering too. It is not the only cause, but it is one of the causes.”
Drainage Unit workers were constantly clearing plastics and other debris that continued to choke watercourses, Bradshaw said.
“The amount of debris, the amount of plastics that we have been taking out of these areas is ridiculous. Therefore, while we will continue on MTW’s end to make sure that we clear the drains, we do all the retention ponds, we make sure that the areas are clear, we’re asking Barbadians as well to do your part… because one of the things that we’ve found overnight is that where areas have been cleaned, you still have areas where debris has accumulated and it has fallen into the drains and blocked a number of the drains as well.”
Bradshaw further rejected claims circulating online that government inaction had fuelled the extent of the flooding.
“This is not a pointing of fingers as I’ve seen some doing on social media, to say that the government is not doing what it is supposed to do.”
The deputy prime minister, who is also minister of transport and works, said the extreme rainfall — as much as nine inches (228.6mm) in several rural districts — had affected homes, roads and ongoing infrastructure projects.
“We just came through the Colleton area… rains like this basically set back the roadworks programme, but it has also in a sense eaten out the roadway and you’re going to see a lot of different holes which we are working feverishly now to be able to close up.”
Contractors had been dispatched to backfill and secure compromised roadways, with MTW teams prioritising major arteries before moving into affected communities, she said.
“We will have the contractors on the ground, and certainly MTW teams at the depots going out to clear first of all the main arteries and then we will come into the communities as we get the request through [Department of Emergency Management] and through the depots to be able to clear a number of those areas.” (SB)
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