Michelle Loubon

In the af­ter­math of the trag­ic road deaths and in­juries in Sea Lots on Feb­ru­ary 24, there have been demon­stra­tions–the most re­cent on Fri­day morn­ing–ask­ing for a walkover across the busy Beetham High­way.But two ma­jor is­sues–re­lo­ca­tion and the es­tab­lish­ment of a port–have al­so resur­faced.Dur­ing the Patrick Man­ning ad­min­is­tra­tion, there were plans to con­struct a new port in this de­pressed com­mu­ni­ty, but the project was nev­er start­ed.

Sev­er­al res­i­dents said they were hap­py liv­ing there. They boast about their prox­im­i­ty to bustling Port-of-Spain, but they want­ed cer­tain in­ter­ven­tions made–es­pe­cial­ly the walkover. Those who were not op­posed to re­lo­ca­tion felt it should bring vis­i­ble so­cio-eco­nom­ic im­prove­ment.Mean­while, those in au­thor­i­ty, such as Plan­ning Min­is­ter Dr Bhoe Tewarie, have said there was still a need for a con­ver­sa­tion with the peo­ple of Sea Lots.

The con­sen­sus was there was a dire need for pos­i­tive in­ter­ven­tions for Sea Lots res­i­dents. But a com­pre­hen­sive plan and a time­frame are yet to be drawn up.

Tewarie: A con­ver­sa­tion­with Sea Lots res­i­dents

Plan­ning Min­is­ter Dr Bhoe Tewarie said it was nec­es­sary to have "a con­ver­sa­tion" with the peo­ple of Sea Lots about the pos­si­ble op­tions and so­lu­tions–in­clud­ing the walkover.

Asked about im­mi­nent plans for the area, Tewarie said, "I'm un­com­fort­able mak­ing a state­ment about what is go­ing to be done for Sea Lots res­i­dents with­out en­gag­ing them first. There are project plans for Sea Lots that have been de­vel­oped by the East Port-of-Spain De­vel­op­ment Com­pa­ny. And these plans have been de­vel­oped through a process of con­sul­ta­tion with res­i­dents.

"The de­mand for a walkover is a re­sponse to a ter­ri­ble tragedy which oc­curred for which the res­i­dents want an im­me­di­ate so­lu­tion. I do agree we need to find so­lu­tions to the prob­lems they have–one of which is their lives are in dan­ger every day by ex­po­sure to ve­hic­u­lar traf­fic."

Tewarie did not de­ny Sea Lots grap­pled with a num­ber of is­sues.He added: "There are oth­er prob­lems and chal­lenges. And I'm not sure if a walkover, even though that is the de­mand from the res­i­dents, is the on­ly and best so­lu­tion. If the res­i­dents would agree, it would be nice to have a con­ver­sa­tion with them about the pos­si­ble so­lu­tions and op­tions that are avail­able in­clud­ing the walkover and oth­er al­ter­na­tives.

It would al­low us to agree in a col­lab­o­ra­tive fash­ion on what should be done and how we would do it. We would ex­am­ine what are the min­istries that would be in­volved. What would be the role of the East Port-of-Spain De­vel­op­ment Com­pa­ny? What would be the role and re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of the cit­i­zens and res­i­dents of the Sea Lots com­mu­ni­ty?"

Tewarie added: "In the wake of this re­cent tragedy, we wish to en­gage them again with op­tions for de­vel­op­ment. And this may in­clude a con­text of Port-of-Spain as part of a sus­tain­able city ini­tia­tive which is be­ing dri­ven by IDB sup­port. I think that a col­lab­o­ra­tive ap­proach is need­ed in­volv­ing mul­ti­ple min­istries."

Mean­while, Tewarie said the ap­proach be­ing tak­en to Sea Lots "re­al­ly has to do with strate­gies al­ready de­vel­oped by the Wa­ter­front Port-of-Spain De­vel­op­ment Com­pa­ny in con­sul­ta­tion with res­i­dents over an ex­tend­ed pe­ri­od. That is what I would like to see. And what I am will­ing to work to­wards."

To date, stu­dents and fac­ul­ty from a Swiss tech­no­log­i­cal in­sti­tute are col­lab­o­rat­ing with UWI and UTT stu­dents in T&T and com­mu­ni­ties in East Port-of-Spain to de­vel­op a mod­el for East Dry Riv­er, the mar­ket, and Sea Lots. The Min­istry of En­vi­ron­ment is al­so lead­ing a drainage project which in­cludes some of the ini­tia­tives un­der sus­tain­abil­i­ty of East Dry Riv­er.

Port ra­tio­nal­i­sa­tion study

Asked about the Man­ning pro­pos­al, Tewarie said he was aware of it. He al­so spoke about a port ra­tio­nal­i­sa­tion study be­ing un­der­tak­en which would point to the fu­ture of the Port-of-Spain port.Tewarie said: "I think that pro­pos­al has re­ceived some con­sid­er­a­tion from the Min­istry of Hous­ing, Lands and Ma­rine Af­fairs and Ude­cott.

"But si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly, there is a port ra­tio­nal­i­sa­tion study be­ing con­duct­ed which looks at all T&T ports and their po­ten­tial for de­vel­op­ment in the con­text of sig­nif­i­cant de­vel­op­ment in the Caribbean re­gion, in­clud­ing the Pana­ma Canal. And this is with­out prej­u­dice to the de­vel­op­ment of the port at La Brea and the de­vel­op­ment of the Ga­le­o­ta Point for spe­cif­ic pur­pos­es at the present time."

Tewarie felt the port ra­tio­nal­i­sa­tion study should in­flu­ence de­ci­sions tak­en about Port-of-Spain."There are oth­er plans which need to be tak­en in­to ac­count for Pt Lisas and the po­ten­tial for ex­pan­sion of the port there. So I think it is with­in that con­text that we need to look at the fu­ture of the Port-of-Spain port so we can make a ra­tio­nal de­ci­sion about port de­vel­op­ment in T&T."

When con­tact­ed, Ude­cott head Jear­lean John said she was in a meet­ing and could not com­ment at that time.

George: Cross­ing lights in­stalled

Works and In­fra­struc­ture Min­is­ter Em­manuel George said there was a short-term plan to im­ple­ment pedes­tri­an cross­ing signs.Asked about the walkover, he said: "We are still look­ing at the de­signs. We have in­stalled a pedes­tri­an cross­ing light near the mar­ket. We did not make a big fuss and it is sim­i­lar to the one at Dock Road.

It is even bet­ter than putting traf­fic war­dens.The walkover will take some months. It can­not be done by mag­ic and the pedes­tri­an but­ton is there.There are a cou­ple that have been in­stalled to al­low peo­ple to ex­it City Gate and al­low them to cross the Beetham High­way.

Sea Lots wish list

A walkover

Prop­er roads

Grants to build homes

Com­mu­ni­ty cen­tre

Em­ploy­ment op­por­tun­ties

Sport­ing fa­cil­i­ty

Youth fa­cil­i­ty

As­sis­tance for sin­gle par­ents

Aboud: Be mas­ters of the present

Pres­i­dent of the Down­town Own­ers and Mer­chants As­so­ci­a­tion Gre­go­ry Aboud said he was aware of the plans for a new port fa­cil­i­ty and man-made "pods" off­shore from Sea Lots. But no new in­for­ma­tion had sur­faced. "There was a lot of talk dur­ing the height of the Man­ning ad­min­is­tra­tion and many grandiose schemes. These in­clud­ed re­marks about the cre­ation of a new port fa­cil­i­ty. Ude­cott ac­tu­al­ly showed us plans that in­clud­ed man-made pods, off­shore of Sea Lots, which would sup­pos­ed­ly be­come the new dock­ing fa­cil­i­ties.

"We have heard noth­ing since. It is a fair com­ment, in our opin­ion, that suc­ces­sive gov­ern­ments have made a habit of an­nounc­ing all sorts of grandiose schemes while sim­ple day-to-day is­sues con­tin­ue to both­er the pop­u­la­tion on a con­stant ba­sis. We have the view such far-fetched plans are anal­o­gous to want­i­ng to put an ex­pen­sive tuxe­do on a man who has no shoes and socks. And we would much pre­fer to see our coun­try be­com­ing a mas­ter of the present in­stead of be­ing sil­ly dream­ers of the fu­ture."

Ze­ro­ing in on the on­go­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tion, he said: "So much go­ing on right now that could be fixed...in­clud­ing the in­ves­ti­ga­tion of the reck­less dri­ving. It was heart wrench­ing. Any­one would have been up­set. All they got was tear gas and bul­lets."

Hy­po­lite: No con­firmed­de­ci­sion on port

Laven­tille West MP Nile­ung Hy­po­lite said the plans for a port at Sea Lots had on­ly reached "pub­lic con­ver­sa­tion lev­el." He said: "There was no con­firmed de­ci­sion. But it nev­er reached the stage on any def­i­nite de­f­i­n­i­tion on the way for­ward. The idea was to de­vel­op that whole wa­ter­front from the Churchill Roo­sevelt High­way to Sea Lots.

It was a com­pre­hen­sive de­vel­op­ment plan and it nev­er reached the stage of con­sul­ta­tion sim­ply be­cause the con­sul­ta­tion with the com­mu­ni­ty nev­er reached the stage of im­ple­men­ta­tion. It was an idea where the PNM looked at de­vel­op­ing the first leg, the In­ter­na­tion­al Fi­nan­cial Tow­ers/Hy­att, and the sec­ond was to go down Sea Lots side."

May­or Lee Sing:Com­pre­hen­sive plan need­ed

Asked about Sea Lots, Port-of-Spain may­or Louis Lee Sing felt peo­ple there de­served a bet­ter way of liv­ing."It has to be dealt with in a holis­tic way," he com­ment­ed. "We can't deal with it as we are do­ing. Too many politi­cians are play­ing games. My own feel­ing is peo­ple should not be liv­ing in a place like Sea Lots. Peo­ple are liv­ing in con­di­tions in Sea Lots that are to­tal­ly un­ac­cept­able and per­haps that is what the pow­ers that be are not un­der­stand­ing or hear­ing."

Lee Sing felt there was the need for a long-term in­ter­ven­tion."We need to treat with them on a long-term ba­sis or pre­pare the site prop­er­ly, now that Sea Lots is on the front burn­er. What is need­ed for Sea Lots is a com­pre­hen­sive plan which speaks to the fu­ture sus­tain­abil­i­ty of the lives of the res­i­dents. And it is cer­tain­ly my wish all stake­hold­ers would sit down and de­ter­mine what is the best mod­el that must be con­struct­ed to go for­ward."Un­til we do that, we are spin­ning our tops in mud."