Shas­tri Boodan

Res­i­dents of Gran Cou­va re­main frus­trat­ed by the fail­ure to fix a huge land­slide in their com­mu­ni­ty. The main road start­ed col­laps­ing on No­vem­ber 26, 2022, in the vicin­i­ty of Cameron Road.

On New Year’s Day, Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed Gran Cou­va, where irate res­i­dents voiced their con­cerns.

Asa Roopc­hand, who had to flee his home that is di­rect­ly in front of the land­slide, said that no­body in au­thor­i­ty had any con­sid­er­a­tion for the plight of peo­ple in the com­mu­ni­ty. The ex­as­per­at­ed man de­clined fur­ther com­ment. Oth­er res­i­dents, mean­while, said they are tired of plead­ing with the au­thor­i­ties for help.

A male res­i­dent, who did not want to be named, ques­tioned the Gov­ern­ment's pri­or­i­ty and the mil­lion-dol­lar al­lo­ca­tion for the Moth­er of all Car­ni­vals.

"$147 mil­lion for Car­ni­val for what? For a few tourist dol­lars, for tourists to run in a pot­hole or get robbed. This coun­try has a lit­tle bit of mon­ey and big­ger is­sues than Car­ni­val. Peo­ple don’t have mon­ey for food and they're study­ing Car­ni­val. I don’t be­lieve they will ever fix this road," he said.

Ca­roni Cen­tral MP Arnold Ram does not be­lieve the road would be re­paired any­time soon. Ram said that WASA has in­stalled above-the-ground steel mains which, in his view, is an in­di­ca­tion that noth­ing will be hap­pen­ing any­time soon. Ram plans to raise this is­sue in the Par­lia­ment as he said, "this is a case of ne­glect for the peo­ple of Cen­tral by this Gov­ern­ment."

He added, "There are no im­me­di­ate plans by the au­thor­i­ties to do any­thing to re­pair this road, and it's get­ting worse.”

Asa Roopchand stands outside his home yesterday in Gran Couva which is affected by landslides in the area.

SHASTRI BOODAN