Dangriga Begins Recovery Efforts After Tropical Wave Flooding

Widespread rains from the passage of a tropical wave over the country Friday into Saturday left many towns, villages and communities inundated. Now that the storm has passed and the rain has subsided, residents are coping with stagnant flood waters as restoration efforts get underway to return life to normal. One such municipality is Dangriga Town. Love FM’s Stann Creek correspondent Harry Arzu spoke with Dangriga Mayor Robert Mariano about the town council’s response and restoration works following the recent flooding.

Robert Mariano, Mayor, Dangriga Town: “Dangriga had a severe flooding over the weekend and so I spoke with the Prime Minister and the Minister of Works and they have sent help for us here in Dangriga. As you noticed we have some engineers from MIDH who have come to assess the situation along with me.  And so what we are doing now is to assess the situation and as early as tomorrow MIDH will be sending equipment and so on to do some work to assist us here in Dangriga especially the roads, the drains, the canals and so on we are going to address all those issues as early as tomorrow. We were first in the Monument site area. We did the entire south part of Monument site and we went to the Rivas Estate area. We are now in the Wagierale area so we visited both Wagierale and Benguche area and then we go to New Site. Again, like I mentioned, we are going to look at all that needs to be done and I’m hopeful that people will see things that need to be done can call me or send me a text so I can add it onto the list because MIDH will be here for the entire week to assist us to get the work done. We notice or I noticed that the street because of the flooding the flooding washed away a lot of material off some of the streets. Some of the culverts are damaged. We still have some streets where water is left on the roads. We have canals that are clogged up and several other stuff we have seen so far that will be addressed ASAP.”

Reporter: So there will be some replacements of resources such as culverts and stuff ? 

Robert Mariano, Mayor, Dangriga Town: “All these things. Yes as you noticed like I mentioned it is two engineers that are here and they are to have been taking notes of the things and the materials that will be needed and again I want to thank the Prime Minister and the Minister of Infrastructure for assisting us in getting the work done.”

Mariano also added that requests have been made for funding to improve infrastructure in Dangriga.

Robert Mariano, Mayor, Dangriga Town: “We will continue to work and improve the drainage system. As you know, the Dangriga Town Council have applied for some financing through CABEIi. What we will be doing is a comprehensive drainage project and that comprehensive drainage project should come in very soon. The engineers were here. They have assessed the situation. They have made recommendations. They have written their report already. They have forwarded it to GOB and they have also forwarded it to CABEI. So the only thing left is for them to bring it for me to sign and then we move on with that.”

As cleanup and recovery efforts continue across Dangriga, residents and town officials alike are hopeful that additional funding will help strengthen the town’s infrastructure against future flooding events.