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Tuesday, February 25, 2025

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HDC promises residents swift intervention as ...Sinkhole spews sewage in Union Hall

by

964 days ago
20220706
Residents of Cypress Ridge, Union Hall, San Fernando, look at a widening sinkhole in the community.

Residents of Cypress Ridge, Union Hall, San Fernando, look at a widening sinkhole in the community.

Ivan Toolsie

The Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion (HDC) is pledg­ing swift in­ter­ven­tion, as a sink­hole spew­ing sewage wa­ter has left res­i­dents of one com­mu­ni­ty in San Fer­nan­do liv­ing in fear.

Res­i­dents of Cy­press Ridge, Union Hall, say apart from health haz­ards, the speed at which the hole is widen­ing has be­come a ma­jor cause for con­cern.

Res­i­dents said they were awak­ened on Wednes­day to a gap­ing hole with ap­par­ent sewage wa­ter bub­bling up to the sur­face.

Kurt Thomas said the in­ci­dent was re­port­ed but the res­i­dents were con­cerned over the rate at which the de­pres­sion was widen­ing and deep­en­ing.

Thomas said, “It start to wors­en, so I made a re­port to WASA us­ing the App. I got an ac­knowl­edge­ment but it al­so stat­ed some­one else had re­port­ed it so I thought it was a wa­ter leak, but as the week pro­gressed we start­ed to see some de­pres­sion in the road and the smell too, then we re­alised is more a sew­er prob­lem.”

Thomas said with sev­er­al town hous­es in the area, res­i­dents fear any fur­ther ero­sion could be cat­a­stroph­ic.

Rachelle De­onar­ine said the health and safe­ty haz­ards could not be ig­nored.

She said, “Our health is a ma­jor fac­tor be­cause it smells ter­ri­ble, ac­cess to our place as well as the in­tegri­ty of all the struc­tures around here, the place is sat­u­rat­ed, it’s filthy, look at the cars still pass­ing, sup­posed a car goes down in­to the hole, what hap­pens, who is go­ing to com­pen­sate for that.”

Ac­cord­ing to Cowin Thor­pe, res­i­dents pay a main­te­nance fee and the HDC needs to act swift­ly on the mat­ter.

“I used to see HDC com­ing around, dri­ving down, but I haven’t seen them in a while now. I find as we pay­ing main­te­nance, they should keep the place to­geth­er,” Thor­pe said.

The res­i­dents said ur­gent at­ten­tion was need­ed to treat with the sink­hole, as the health and safe­ty of scores of res­i­dents was un­der threat.

Com­ment­ing on the is­sue yes­ter­day, the said, “Of­fi­cers from our south of­fice vis­it­ed the area to­day, Ju­ly 6, 2022. Fol­low­ing their in­ves­ti­ga­tions, the de­vel­op­er was asked to in­ter­vene and has since sent work­ers to the site. The area is cur­rent­ly blocked off to warn home-own­ers and dri­vers.”

The HDC has al­so apol­o­gised to the res­i­dents and has asked for pa­tience and un­der­stand­ing.


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