Dr Don Samuel
Flooding is a solvable national crisis which deserves our urgent attention owing to its ongoing impact to our productivity and economy.
The University of the West Indies (UWI), via its Triple “A” Strategy, aims to build relationships with the society it serves. Thus, this article briefly explores the root causes and offers pragmatic solutions to flooding which has negatively affected the lives of our citizens.
Flooding has been a perennial challenge in TT. According to a 2019 United Nations report entitled “An Economic Analysis of Flooding in the Caribbean” authors Fontes de Meira and Phillips highlighted major floods in 1993, 1996, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2018.
The 2019 report presented a map of high-risk areas which flooded in 2022. This is indeed food for thought. The report further explored the impact of the 2018 flood in two key communities. The report concluded that there were losses estimated in the millions owing to infrastructural damage and eradication of crops as well as lost productivity calculated in the hundreds of thousands of hours. Given the 2022 situation, one could deduce the anticipated losses at a national scale. One of the escalating adverse impacts of flooding is the further deterioration of the aging road and bridge network. This compounds the continuing complex challenge so is a prime consideration.
The debate over whether climate change is the root cause of flooding continues. What is clear, however, is the increase in rainfall.
[caption id="attachment_1000739" align="alignnone" width="720"] Dr Don Samuel -[/caption]
Figures from the TT Meteorological Office demonstrate that the long-term average for November (1991-2020) is 222.9mm while the predicted average for November 2022 is 318mm (actual average is not yet available). Summary annual data presented by the Meteorological Office suggests that November is one of the most active months given the La Nina Effect and Atlantic hurricane season. In 2022, November represented the most significant flooding in our country’s history although it was not as a result of a tropical disturbance. Naturally, the UWI as a tertiary institution grounded in the Caribbean, is concerned about the safety and welfare of our communities. Hence, we advocate for technical solutions to flooding via data driven decision making.
We look forward to the report and improvements that will come from the national drainage study. A national drainage study, an engineering exercise, should:
1) determine the capacity of our rivers/wetlands to accept additional stormwater from developments
2) establish estuary infrastructure to improve the flow rates of rivers during high tides
3) establish an updated flood map with an advanced warning system
4) explore existing/trending land use patterns and
5) provide updated rainfall intensity duration frequency curves.
The drainage study is expected to provide design parameters (flow rates, back water analyses, capacity checks, updated drainage profiles, size of catchment areas and development d
