Dear Editor,
We are in the season of the heavy rainfall, but it seems as if the Anna Regina Town Council are just talking without taking action. We are now under the threat of floods from global warming and many of the drainage pumps are not working. I can remember when the newly installed pump at Anna Regina was without fuel causing the township to be flooded, and the fuel attendant was drunk and the Regional Vice-Chairman drove helter skelter to find him.
It seems as if the Town Council cannot learn from the last floods, or they never took the advice from the residents affected, especially in Cotton Field where I am living. It is a living example of incompetence on the part of the council, as people keep dumping garbage and filling the drains running from north to south between the house lots. Millions of dollars were spent during my tenure as Deputy Mayor to maintain this drainage, but today residents are filling the drain to access more land space in their yards even though the matter was reported to the Mayor and Town Councillors.
Many residents like myself have to pay labourers to clean the trench, while the council never does anything and we still have to pay our taxes. As a result of the last flood my yard was flooded out; my tenant who operates a business lost several items and now he is under the same threat by these land-grabbing residents.
Editor, all of this could have been avoided if the Mayor and Town Councillors had heeded my warning and complaints and instructed these residents not to fill the government reserve drain running from north to south. According to Minister of Local Government Kellawan Lall, government has ordered that the annual subvention to the various Neighbourhood Democratic Councils and municipalities across the country be withheld until steps are taken to correct these key issues within the respective communities. The Minister noted that the decision to withhold the subventions is a part of government’s larger plan to revamp the management systems of these institutions.
Yours faithfully,
Mohamed Khan
