The teams that have been in Diego Martin removing mud are called "disaster preparedness teams" but in reality they are disaster response teams. If there was more disaster preparedness, fewer things would have gone wrong. People at "disaster preparedness" (or maybe even "disaster avoidance") would see to it that the drainage systems are adequately designed, built and maintained so there are fewer disasters in the first place.

Many people live in the north-west, in and near Port of Spain. Development around the capital started hundreds of years ago on the valley floors, where the plantations were. The land was rich and fertile from hundreds of years of organic matter flowing down from the hillsides. The plantations were replaced by homes and businesses on the flatter land. So most people live in the valleys between steep hills. Most of the roads are on the valley floors.

Rain becomes surface water and funnels down between ridges to streams and ditches and quebradas and drains and rivers and out to the sea. This movement of groundwater is part of what is called hydrology and much is known about it.

Development always moves away from built-up areas to the open areas on the fringes. In the Port of Spain and Diego Martin areas, this means up-valley and on the hills. More uphill and upstream structures are built, more is paved, less rainfall is absorbed, runoff increases, etc. These phenomena, processes and consequences are also well understood and well-documented.

The current drainage system in Diego Martin is an old design and is no longer adequate in light of population growth and development. Rivers and canals are not regularly dredged of the rich soil coming down from the forested mountains, thus restricting their carrying capacities. Trees and branches come down, too, and people all along the stream throw all kinds of debris into this moving dumpster, which adds to the clogging of the system. Much of this rich soil from the mountains that fills the rivers could be captured and relocated to farmland instead of being allowed to flow out to sea, but it isn't.

All along the stream and river channels are low bridges. Debris snags on them, restricting the flow, slowing the drainage process, and raising the upstream levels.

Last week we had days of long, heavy rainfall instead of the typical shorter, more frequent showers. In a year and a half I've seen more rain three or four times, so it was not unnatural or alarming. During the heaviest rains, the water would creep up a few inches in the yard and the carpark, but wouldn't cover the bottom steps at the front or back doors.

There is a concrete block security wall around the 24-townhouse compound that I just learned seems to have been doing levee duty, too. When a 100-foot section toppled into the river, here came the angry brown water, very quickly and lots of it, because the river was already over the banks. The effect was small-scale catastrophic, and occurred this time right where we live. And this was only our small experience.

There are three possible next steps for the authorities:

• make safeguarding people's lives, homes, and property a priority and fix what's broken.

• take some temporary measures that will not solve the core problem, or

• do nothing at all.

The last two will work only if it never rains again.

David Allan Van

Diego Martin