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Penal/Debe Regional Corporation (PDRC) chairman Gowtam Maharaj has called for a status update on the US$10 million South Oropouche River Basin project that was aimed at building climate resilience in the basin’s population and ecosystems to flooding, sea level rise and expected increasing water deficit events.

Maharaj spoke to the Express at Clarke Road in Penal yesterday, where, after heavy rainfall on the weekend and the declaration of the wet season, he oversaw drain-clearing exercises to prevent flooding across several districts in south and south-western areas in Trinidad.

As several workers from the PDRC cleared the riverbanks and a mini-excavator cleared a watercourse, Maharaj said that a collaborative effort with manual labour and machines was in operation to remove silt, debris and garbage from the river tributaries and water courses.