Take environmental issues to CARICOM: Warner

Works and Transport Minister Jack Warner is working on a cabinet note on the need for a national campaign on the environment.

It will focus on how to preserve and conserve and seek approval from Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar to lay a paper on the envrionment before CARICOM.

In a media release Warner said with CARICOM's approval he intends to make approaches to international bodies and leaders on the issue of international global warming, flooding and the environment.

"Already Bharat Jagdeo, President of Guyana has championed in no small measure this cause. I intend to now partner with him in making this an international issue of concern.

"CARICOM and Trinidad and Tobago must move now in a new direction to show our concern on this issue. Together we must partner in revitalizing international debate on it. Collectively we can make a difference," Warner said.

He said in the coming weeks, he would direct technocrats from the works ministry to compile all the necessary research to prepare the note for the Cabinet and CARICOM.

"I am prepared to direct all human resource available to ensure international debate on this issue is revitalized. Our people deserve no less," he said.

Warner's inititaive has been prompted by the recent unprecedented flooding in Trinidad and Tobago. He said this has demonstrated a need for a national debate into the causes.

"There is ample evidence to suggest that the failure of State agencies to remedy the perennial issues of clogged drains and water-courses and to dredge our rivers may be a significant cause of these floods," he said.

However, he added: "We are confident as well that the indiscriminate dumping of garbage into our rivers has also contributed to this national disaster."

He said, "Our preliminary investigations also suggest that the rampant breaches of the law with respect to the construction of housing and massive skyscrapers in our cities, without relevant approval, would have also contributed to flash floods."

Warner noted that massive flooding is not restricted to Trinidad and Tobago because of a more fundamental reason.

"There have been reports of widespread flooding, damage and even death in Pakistan, India and in the United States in recent time. This points to something that is not disingenuous to Trinidad and Tobago, but one that reflects that there is a greater global threat that has led to this widespread international disaster.

"Having contemplated upon certain statistics on the annual rainfall in Trinidad and Tobago and average temperatures over the years, it seems clear that we are faced with the greater issue of global warming, increased rainfall and temperatures.

"The increasing threat to our environment perpetuated by our random care and concern with how we treat with waste and how we fail to control the side-effects of our industrial progress has hit us as a global nation," Warner said.