● <B>What is the ultimate cause of the tragic accidents of last Wednesday?</B>

Despite the torrential rains on Wednesday, the ministry of Education did not call it a day off for schools since early morning as they were waiting for the meteorological services to confirm that 100mm of rainfall had fallen. The delay in taking the right decision at the right time indirectly caused the death of one student and three other people. Was it powerlessness or inefficiency?

● <B>Who was supposed to take the right decision?</B>

Where the meteorological services claim that they were unable to know the exact impact of the disastrous rains in advance, Meteo France in Reunion and many other met websites had already given their forecasts and were already in alert for torrential rains.

● <B>Is common sense needed if forecasts cannot be trusted !</B>

If people and even the experts at the ministry as well as those at the meteorological station have stopped trusting weather forecasts, common sense should have prevailed in such a crisis situation. Rain had been falling over the previous days. It?s obvious that the soil would have been saturated with water. It could have been anticipated that the 100mm of water would have been reached during the day.

● <B>Why is there a fact-finding committee now?</B>

It is always easy to be wise after the event. The setting up of a fact-finding committee to enquire into last Wednesday?s events is interesting in the sense that it can help see what are the weaknesses in the system and propose measures to avoid the recurrence of such tragedies. The committee will be presided by Judge Bhushan Domah, with the ex-director of the meteorological station, Ranjitlall Vaghjee, and the ex-secretary for Home Affairs, Jacques Rosalie as assessors.