Prime Minister keeps a watchful eye on the drainage conditions of the Dili International Airport
The Prime Minister, Rui Maria de Araújo, accompanied by the Minister of Public Works, Transport and Communications, Gastão de Sousa, and by a team from the Presidente Nicolau Lobato International Airport, carried out an on-the-spot visit on December 14th to identify and ensure a solution to the causes of the flood that took place the previous day.
In fact, the existing drainage system was unable to drain the water from Kampung Baru, in Comoro Village, leaving the airport flooded for a few hours, detrimental to passengers and staff.
On behalf of the Government, Rui Maria de Araújo regretted what has happened and clarified that “the flooding of the airport and of its surrounding areas was caused by the fact that the existing drainage system is not operating effectively due to accumulated waste.”
The water from Kampung Baru should flow to the Comoro River through the existing channels along the road between the PNTL Academy and the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. However, these channels did not work efficiently this season’s first heavy rainfall.
The Prime Minister assured that the Ministry of Public Works, Transport and Communications will ensure that all the channels in the area work properly, in order to avoid this type of problems in the future. In addition, the Government is already looking for the most appropriate solutions to prevent this kind of flooding.
