Shar­lene Ram­per­sad

The Spring­vale Hin­du Pri­ma­ry School was closed this morn­ing, as smoke from on­go­ing fires at the For­res Park land­fill blan­ket­ed the com­mu­ni­ty.

Ac­cord­ing to re­ports, around 8.45 am, short­ly af­ter school had been called in­to ses­sion, the prin­ci­pal be­gan call­ing par­ents to col­lect their chil­dren.

The T&T Guardian vis­it­ed the area yes­ter­day and spoke with res­i­dent Tex Chin­pire and his ten-year-old son, Se­bas­t­ian.

"We are fed up with this dump caus­ing prob­lems in our com­mu­ni­ty," Chin­pire said. "The chil­dren were sup­posed to sit ex­ams to­day and now they have to call par­ents back as soon as you drop them off, to come and get their chil­dren."

Se­bas­t­ian said he was sup­posed to sit Na­tion­al Tests yes­ter­day, but teach­ers told him the ex­ams would re­sume when­ev­er class­es be­gin again. Ap­prox­i­mate­ly 200 pupils in to­tal were sent home.

Chin­pire and oth­er res­i­dents say they want the Gov­ern­ment to move the land­fill out of their area as it con­tin­ues to wors­en their qual­i­ty of life as the years progress.