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New­ly ap­point­ed Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter Khadi­jah Ameen has start­ed a na­tion­al flood mit­i­ga­tion cam­paign, which she said will see the im­me­di­ate de­ploy­ment of equip­ment and man­pow­er to clear drains and wa­ter­cours­es to pre­vent flood­ing.

Ameen has vowed to be proac­tive, rather than re­ac­tive, to floods.

Speak­ing at the launch of the ini­tia­tive yes­ter­day, Ameen re­vealed that an en­tire ware­house of equip­ment has been sit­ting idle, even as flood vic­tims strug­gle to re­build their lives and farm­ers suf­fer dev­as­tat­ing loss­es every year. Her first or­der of busi­ness is to im­me­di­ate­ly be­gin clear­ing rivers and trib­u­taries from the South Oropouche Drainage Basin, Ca­paro Val­ley rivers, Ca­roni Riv­er Basin, North Oropouche wa­ter­ways, Diego Mar­tin rivers, and rivers flow­ing out of the Rio Claro re­gion.