An "aggressive" desilting of major rivers and drains programme, in which the government has agreed to spend $300 million, is progressing smoothly in the central region, said the Works and Transport Ministry Rohan Sinanan.
On Saturday, the minister and other officials visited sites in Central Trinidad to get a first-hand view of the work which is part of the ministry's ongoing National Drainage Desilting Programme.
"We are far advanced and trying to take full advantage of the dry season. Phase one is almost completed, and we are about to start phase two. We are on track to complete our river cleaning programmes," he said while at the Honda River near Factory Road in Chaguanas.
Sinanan told reporters that 132 desilting and major upgrade projects are to be completed in this financial year in central Trinidad.
He said the ministry is tackling the most critical areas simultaneously in different areas.
Asked for an update on repairs to the collapsing embankment of the Caroni River, Sinanan said when the river is full, there is a challenge for outflows in some of the secondary tributaries that flow into the river.
There are several projects ongoing, including embankment works, he said.
"It is a long river, and we do different aspects of it every year. This year, we have about four or five areas where the embankment will be repaired and rebuilt," Sinanan said.
"This year, we have desilting work taking place, the building of bank gates being installed, and additional pumps being installed to pump water into the river from the tributaries once we have a high tide. So a significant amount of work is being done."
Residents of La Paille, Caroni Village, New Street Extension and Ibis Gardens, Caroni have been complaining about the eroded embankment in several areas and are hoping the ministry use the dry season to repair the river bank before the rainy season.
Referring to the massive flooding in Greenvale in 2018, Sinanan said whatever flooding problems there are in that area as well as other Housing Development Corporation projects, are considered to be localised.
It is, therefore, flooding caused when the internal drains are challenged with the capacity. It is not overflow from any river. Sinanan said much work had gone into the Caroni River since that major flood.
Regarding flooding nationwide, he said garbage in the watercourses and several other factors contributes to it.
"At the end of the day, we are responsible for our actions. We do have an ongoing programme where we try to inform people of the challenges if they dispose of garbage in a manner that would cause problems," Sinanan said.
"Not far from here, some people were encroaching on the banks and using the banks for agricultural purposes. That is another challenge we have."
He said in some cases, people threaten the ministry's machine operators by saying they had crops on the banks and demanded that the workers refrain from working there.
"But we have to do what we have to do, and we will go in to create that access to deal with the
