Imbert says he can fix flooding problems

Former Works and Transport Minister Colm Imbert said Monday he knows how to solve Trinidad and Tobago's flooding problem. However he said it will be costly and take a long time to complete the project.

The current Works and Transport Jack Warner has criticised his predecessor and the previous Manning PNM government. Jack Warner has said the previous administration failed to dredge rivers and water courses during the prolonged dry season.

Warner has charged that the PNM must take much of the blame for flooding problems that people all over the country have faced over the past several days. But Imbert disagreed and called Warner's claims "reckless".

In an interview with the Trinidad Express newspaper Imbert said there is no way that the country's water courses could deal with the volume of water from the excessive rainfall in the past few days.

"What you have to do is you have to trap the water...in what is called detention ponds before the water gets to the population—and you have to do that all over the country in the densely populated area," he said.

"It's a very expensive undertaking but it is the only solution to the problem. It was on stream, the projects were on stream, it just takes a long time," he said.

He could not say whether he had dregded any waterway during his term of office but insisted that a lot of work had been done under his watch to ease the flooding problems.

And his leader, Keith Rowley said last week that the flooding is an act of God and no one can blame the PNM for it.