Minister for Waterways, Dr. Mahendra Reddy has revealed that over the Easter weekend this year, 478mm of rain was recorded in Vaturu while on 31st March and 1st of April, 297mm and 105.5mm of rain had fallen respectively.
Dr. Reddy stated that the long-term average rainfall for April for Vaturu is 511mm.
He says what this means is that 93% of the total monthly rainfall fell during the Easter weekend which demonstrates the volume of water that came down the downstream.
He says there has been a lot said about the causes of flooding and some have said it has been caused by silted rivers and improper drainage but people need to understand that a massive amount of rainfall was recorded in just a few days.
While responding to the Minister’s statement, National Federation Party’s MP, Prem Singh says that Dr. Reddy’s statement has been an ad-hoc science lesson.
Singh says the Ministry of Waterways only came to know about all of these views, assessments, mitigation and management when Cyclone Keni and Josie struck us.
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