SHAS­TRI BOODAN

Res­i­dents of Ramdeen Trace, Mafek­ing Vil­lage, Ma­yaro, fear an out­break of dengue should the di­lap­i­dat­ed con­di­tions of their drains re­main un­changed. When the T&T Guardian vis­it­ed the area yes­ter­day, Ho­bra­jee Boodoo, 55, spokesman for the res­i­dents, said the vil­lagers want Min­is­ter of Works and In­fra­struc­ture Jack Warn­er to vis­it the area ur­gent­ly.

Boodoo said Ramdeen Trace has about 15 house­holds and the drains in the area are clogged and hold stag­nant wa­ter. She said dur­ing pe­ri­ods of heavy rain­fall, wa­ter runs in­to the yards of res­i­dents and re­mains as mos­qui­to-in­fest­ed pud­dles for days. Boodoo said these pools of stag­nant wa­ter pro­vide a breed­ing ground for mos­qui­toes.

The res­i­dents said they have com­plained to their lo­cal gov­ern­ment rep­re­sen­ta­tives on the Rio Claro/Ma­yaro Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion, but noth­ing has been done. "In the long run, this would cre­ate more prob­lems if it is not fixed. The roads would get dam­aged and we don't want to see an out­break of dengue in this area now that the rainy sea­son has start­ed," she said.