THE EDITOR: The scenes of distressed citizens, their beautiful homes surrounded by brown water which is subsiding far too slowly, emphasises the reasons building laws just cannot be ignored.

In another country there would be serious jail time for breaching building codes. You cannot change water courses, you cannot cut into hillsides to construct houses, you cannot build on river banks. You definitely cannot construct beach houses on sea fronts and expect the ocean to feel sorry for you and keep off your property.

How can anyone blame government for not making all of this excess water disappear in 48 hours or less? How do you fix landslides and resurface roads in pouring rain? Landslides will recur at will. Soil erosion under road surfaces will continue to happen.

Media photos clearly show that we as citizens have to wake up and drink the climate change coffee every single day; and not just when we feel like it.

Who is to blame when errant contractors do not care that thousands of families will be distressed by their selfish actions? Who is turning a blind eye in certain regional corporations? Who is not listening to complaints from burgesses? What about illegal quarrying?

Allowing yourself to do whatever you want, build wherever you want, just because you have a nice little piece of land, is total madness. And then turn around and blame government for not cleaning this drain and that river.

We say that these things would not happen in a first world country. But why? They would not happen because laws have to be obeyed. Construction cannot happen without the two magic words – government approval.

How can the Ministry of Works and Transport fix everything overnight? Will it make a difference if the government supplied every household with their own water pump? I don't think so.

How many river banks stretching for miles, can you make safe? How can you prevent under road soil erosion?

How do you prevent the roads from crumbling? How can you instill in citizens the importance of not throwing garbage into rivers? One hand cannot clap. Climate change is here to stay.

L. JOSEPH

Via e-mail