BARBADOS EXPERIENCED a severe drought in the first half of 2010. For more than six months not a drop of rain fell from our skies; in fact, we were cautioned to conserve and save water lest our aquifers ran dry.
All Barbadians were encouraged to make preparations in the face of what promised to be an arid season.
All Barbadians, it appears, except you, Dr Denis Lowe, Minister in charge of Water Resources and Drainage (i.e. Minister of the Water Authority and so on)! While we were installing water tanks, and shutting off pipes, the ministry that you lead was doing nothing except enjoying the sunshine.
Do you not think that you could have turned your attention to doing some planning and work in the areas that we know to be flood prone?
Do you not think that even as the earth was cracking that you could have empowered persons in your ministry to do what they were begging to do – which was to get on with the job of flood mitigation by clearing waterways, unclogging drains, debushing canals and generally making preparations for when the rains came?
What, Sir, were you directing your ministry to do? It appears from a cursory glance that your attention was focused on football tournaments and school fairs.
Can you imagine the shame, embarrassment and humiliation that the people in your ministry must have felt when the rains finally came, that after one day of good rainfall Barbados was placed under a flood watch and then a flood warning and, worse yet, that when the inevitable floods came they were “the worst” that people in some areas had seen in living memory?
Washed away If you can imagine it, then you would have shown much more ingenuity than you had done for the six months where you appear to have imagined nothing!
What adds icing to the cake is the fact that even as people were being washed away in Christ Church that the taps on the same South Coast were dry for days.
No truer words were ever spoken than “water water everywhere and not a drop to drink!”.
I call on you to explain what you have been doing for the last six months and to apologise to Barbadians in general and specifically to the people in Garner Drive, Enterprise Close, Enterprise Coast Road, Goodland, Wotton, Ealing Park South, off Madison and Bournes Land, Ealing Grove and Platinum Heights – some of these areas you may be aware of, as not two years ago they were considered your constituents.
This is the ultimate and cruelest irony of all, that you seem unable to even protect and keep safe those whom you are sworn to exercise stewardship over.
Sir, a rising tide carries all ships, and even though the tide may now be Low(e), I can assure you that you too will have to account for the floundering of your ship and its unworthiness to handle this most recent mild meteorological event, which has turned into a disaster for many Barbadians,
We remain; anxious, wet, flooded out, flooded in, mud filled and bedraggled Barbadians eager for explanations and leadership.
WILFRED A. ABRAHAMS, BLP candidate for Christ Church East
