RALPH BAN­WARIE

Matelot has been re­con­nect­ed to the rest of Trinidad as a bai­ley bridge has been in­stalled over the Ba­casa Riv­er, al­low­ing ve­hi­cles and vil­lagers to move out and in­to their com­mu­ni­ty.

The vil­lage was ma­rooned for the last few days af­ter heavy rains caused the bridge to be washed away on Wednes­day, sep­a­rat­ing the vil­lagers from the rest of the coun­try.

Matelot vil­lagers were able to get re­lief sup­plies like wa­ter, tins of bread, bis­cuits, cots, rice, bat­tery lamps, and two-burn­er stoves to as­sist them, around 1 pm yes­ter­day

They al­so re­ceived sup­plies for the ba­bies of the vil­lage which in­clud­ed wipes, di­a­pers, and milk.

Wazir Mo­hammed, se­nior su­per­vi­sor of T&TEC, and his crew were able to re­store elec­tric­i­ty to the vil­lagers ear­ly yes­ter­day morn­ing.

Sher­land Shep­pard, di­rec­tor, WASA Op­er­a­tions, told the Sun­day Guardian that wa­ter sup­ply would be re­stored by last night.

How­ev­er, vil­lagers were com­plain­ing about their tele­phone con­nec­tion, which has not been re­stored.

MP for To­co/San­gre Grande Glen­da Jen­nings-Smith and coun­cil­lor Ter­ry Ron­don were very hap­py to re­ceive re­lief sup­plies for the vil­lagers of Matelot.

Jen­nings-Smith promised vil­lagers that the land­slides and de­plorable road con­di­tions would be ad­dressed in the quick­est pos­si­ble time so that their lives could re­turn to nor­mal.

She ap­pealed for an ODPM of­fice be es­tab­lished in To­co, so emer­gen­cies and dis­as­ters like this one can be ad­dressed quick­ly.