WAYNE KUBLALSINGH
Opportunity for an altered economy
THE FOUR certainties of extreme weather events are temperature increase, melting icecaps, sea rise and heavy precipitation. A significant part of the land mass of Trinidad, situated at the mouth of the Orinoco Delta, comprises flat land, swamp and wetland formations: the Caroni and Naparima Plains and the Caroni, Nariva and North and South Oropouche swamps.
What we call the Northern Range is the northeastern Atlantic extension of the Andean Range. Wind passing over a warmer, fuller Atlantic picks up megatons of heat energy, transforming to storms, heavy precipitation.
These circumstances mean extreme precipitation, flooding, landslides, liquid soil. And social, economic and infrastructural costs. This phenomenon cannot be stopped. However, it may be countered and overcome by an altered economy.
Constituency Government
For TT, no mitigation or transition to a 'low-carbon' or 'green' economy would be effective without government reformation. Mitigation may not be effectively managed from Port of Spain. Our regional corporations are ill-equipped for effective leadership in matters of extreme weather events, accelerating crime and economic decline in rural Trinidad.
The nation must move with dispatch to instal 41 constituency chiefs, constituency executives and polling division captains for hands-on, direct administration. Each provided with oversight and accountability support from a council. Live, direct, on the ground and proactive leadership is requisite.
Infrastructural Projects
Hydrology before hydraulics. Hydrology refers to the behaviour of water in its natural and artificial habitats. Hydraulics refers to the artificial systems to manage hydrology events.
A hydrological mapping of TT is a necessary precondition for planning infrastructural projects, such as that envisioned in the State's plan for a national transportation proposal, which was recently disclosed by the Minister of Works and Transport at a select committee meeting of Parliament.
Copious retention dams must be built on the Caroni and Naparima Plains to capture sheet flow across the plains. They must be linked to canals and irrigation systems to provide water for communities, industries and farmers in the less wet season.
Small catchments or ponds may be built in the foothills of the Northern and Central Ranges to capture water even before it descends into populated areas, where densely-packed housing settlements, paved areas, concreted surfaces, malls and industrial infrastructure limit percolation.
Mangrove afforestation is requisite. Mangrove absorbs the brunt of extreme tidal shocks. They provide migration pathways for marine and riverine species, species diversity and hatcheries. Such afforestation, pursued methodically and persistently, over a number of years, will boost the oyster and fisheries economy.
A horticultural revolutio
