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A landslides and a resulting broken pipe in La Croix in 2016. (IWN photo)
A landslides and a resulting broken pipe in La Croix in 2016. (IWN photo)
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The Central Water and Sewerage Authority, like regional forecasters, have warned of the possibility of landslides when the rains return after a long period of drought.

Chief Executive Officer of the CWSA, Garth Saunders, told a recent press conference that the CWSA is encouraging consumers to immediately activate their hurricane preparedness plans.

“You are going to need water storage. The scientist, the engineers will tell you after a long drought, soil cohesion is less, it doesn’t stay together very much, you get cracks and when the rain comes, the water infiltrates these cracks and causes landslides and damage. So we expect a hurricane season to be affected by landslides and land slippages,” Saunders said.

He said that this also affects the CWSA.

“So we are explaining this to the public, ahead of time that once we have heavy rainfall, you can look forward to flooding and landslides. And our pipelines coming from the middle of the forest are very vulnerable. So we are going to have to try as much as possible to protect ourselves and prepare ourselves for disaster response because in many cases there is very little we can do with natural disasters and natural occurrences,” Saunders said.

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In May, during its virtual Climate Outlook Forum, the Caribbean Institute of Metrology and Hydrology (CIMH) made a similar observation about the potential for landslides this wet season.

CIMH said June through August rainfall may be drier than usual in Belize and Trinidad and Tobago, with slightly fewer wet days than usual, but wetter than the usual in most other places, with a few more wet days, wet spells and more very wet spells than usual.

The implication is potentially faster recharge of water reservoirs related to an increase in wet spells and increasing flooding and landslide potential in the islands towards August.

3 replies on “CWSA anticipating landslides, flooding this wet season”

  1. EVERYTIME THAT THERE IS A SOCIO-ECONOMIC ISSUE IN SVG, PEOPLE ARE TOLD THAT THEY ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THEMSELVES.

    SVG HAS VERY POOR BUILDING STANDARDS. IF YOU BUILD A ROAD YOU HAVE TO BUILD IT TO LAST. YOU HAVE TO HAVE SOME KIND OF SECURITY AGAINST LANDSLIDES OR IF YOU AN AUTOMOBILIST GOES OVER THE EDGE OF ONE OF THESE NARROW AND STEEP WINDING MOUNTAIN ROADS.

    IF YOU BUILDING A WATER SYSTEM YOU HAVE TO BUILD ONE THAT WILL LAST. YOU HAVE TO MAINTAIN AND IMPROVE THAT SYSTEM CONSTANTLY. STOP BLAMING PEOPLE FOR YOUR FAULTS.

  2. Gersham Alexander says:

    Reafforestation is also important to prevent landslides. It is too late to prevent land slides for this year. But we need to start the tree replant process now.

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