Senior Reporterkevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt
It has been two weeks since St John’s Branch Trace residents have been using an old pirogue to cross a challenging river to get home after a bridge collapsed.
Life has deteriorated for residents who struggle to get groceries and medicine and attend school and work. With their vehicles trapped inside, many depend on relatives living elsewhere to meet them on the other side of the river to take them to their various destinations. But even when the river is calm, the rain fills the pirogue with water.
Mother of three, Vashti Premchan has not been to work at a puja store in Penal since the bridge collapsed on July 10. She fears drowning after two villagers fell into the water. Her family is also monitoring their pet dog, who suffered a caiman attack while trying to swim across.
While her boss is understanding, Premchan worries about keeping her job.
“To get across is very difficult because sometimes you may put something there, and you do not know what will happen. The boat may not balance properly; you do not know if you will fall over. There is no place to really sit in the boat,” Premchan said.
Her elder son, Dinesh, is a Form Six student at Iere High School, Siparia, preparing to write the Caribbean Advance Proficiency Examination next year. He said the river levels are usually four to six feet deep, but with recent rainfall, it rose to eight to 12 feet. Unable to swim, he worries when crossing in the morning to attend classes.
“Right now I need to go for lessons for Upper Six because I want to go to university after, and it is kind of hard to travel across there every day and walk to get a taxi,” Dinesh said.
His uncle, Seukaran said residents tried to devise safer solutions but did not have the equipment or assistance to carry out the work. He said Fyzabad MP Dr Lackram Bodoe spoke to some contractors and they were hopeful. Meanwhile, off-road pickup trucks reached the community by crossing a river from Woodland to access an old company road. However, their vehicles cannot navigate that terrain.
Seukaran said while they contemplated building a raft using barrels, they were unsure how safe it would be when they applied load.
“We just feel like nobody cares for us: no government, nobody cares for us, so we have to go with the flow and it is very difficult. We do not know how long we can go on with this because everybody here is getting frustrated,” Seukaran said.
Siparia Mayor Doodnath Mayrhoo, who visited the community yesterday, said no government agency has responded to date. Mayrhoo said Minister of Rural Development and Local Government Faris Al-Rawi and Minister of Works and Transport Rohan Sinanan did not respond to the Siparia Regional Corporation or his correspondences about the bridge.
“I wrote to Mr Al-Rawi on Monday, indicating the plight of the people in this area. Had this been a PNM constituency, I am sure the bridge would have almost been completed by now. I want the country to know and the world to know, by extension, the kind of discrimination that takes place in this country,” Mayrhoo said.
He said two men lost their jobs because of their inability to reach work.
“Fourteen days now, the residents who are marooned there have to traverse with that boat through that river to come up these steps here and some of those vehicles are still locked in there,” he added.
Speaking in Manzanilla yesterday, Sinanan said the bridge does not fall under the Ministry of Works and Transport but he was willing to provide technical assistance to the Ministry of Rural Development and Local Government if required.
“I have been in touch with the MP for the area, the Minister of Local Government. They know we are on standby, but certain things has to be sorted out. The Government cannot just go on private land and build a bridge because there are liabilities,” Sinanan said.