Residents from the Dennery community say they no longer experience incidents of major flooding from the river, since the authorities stepped in to provide improved drainage methods.
Multiple drainage systems were installed island wide by the Disaster Vulnerability Reduction Project (DVRP). DVRP is a World Bank Group funded initiative aimed at reducing the island’s vulnerability to extreme weather events. These events include hurricanes, storms and floods.
Construction of these drainage systems occurred from September 2019 to December 2021. Dennery is just one of the areas benefitting from the enterprise.
A resident of the area relayed his deep satisfaction with the drainage system’s effectiveness: “Any time the riverbank is filled, the water and the river you won’t find going down, it’s coming into the village, but any time it would make the height until it could get out, it would be going out rapidly.
“So far, I am satisfied with the work being done there. I have not seen any major flooding again.”
Drainage systems were also enhanced in parts of Castries, Micoud, Choiseul, Canaries, Anse la Raye and Soufriere. The designs, construction and supervision of civil works came to a cost of USD $5.2 million.
According to an agency official, “A significant reduction in the vulnerability of Saint Lucia to extreme weather events will be the legacy of almost 9-year-old DVRP”.