Senior Reporter
kay-marie.fletcher@guardian.co.tt
The Government is currently looking at vesting orders for new burial sites which will legally allow state lands to be allocated to regional corporations.
So said Rural Development and Local Government Minister Faris Al-Rawi as he acknowledged that several cemeteries across the country were running out of space, and some were even set to be closed down.
At least six regional corporations are short of burial plots at some of the cemeteries under their control.
These include cemeteries in the San Juan/Laventille, Penal/Debe, Sangre Grande, Princes Town, Tunapuna/Piarco and Couva/Tabaquite/Talparo corporations.
This grave problem is said to be a result of the 4,000 plus COVID-19-related deaths during the pandemic.
Speaking to Guardian Media following the launch of the Ministry of Youth Development and National Service CRISP, ALL SET and Project Drive youth development training series held at the NESC Technical Institute in Point Lisas yesterday, Al-Rawi said residential consultations must take place as the Government sought new locations.
Al-Rawi said, “The issue of the capacity of cemeteries is something that’s on the table. It’s why we’re looking at vesting orders right now but there is a larger management issue because you need space and space requires consent and there’s a process of approval.
“We’ve had a lot of crematoria built but we have not had any new applications come to fruition. There are some within the pipeline.”
“If you ask most people, ‘Let’s open new cemeteries’, they’ll say, ‘Sure, but just not next to me.’ So, you have a balancing act to have inside of the country obviously, so there has to be consultation, appropriate sites, appropriate approvals,” he added.
He said the last cemetery to be opened under the Government was the Muslim cemetery in Barrackpore.
According to the Burial Grounds Act, a grave can only be reopened for another burial after seven years for a person over 12 years of age and five years for a child under 12.