Mar­ket ven­dor Kr­ish­na Jagges­sar spent near­ly two decades re­build­ing his life af­ter a fire de­stroyed his home in 2006. Now, in his twi­light years, he watch­es help­less­ly as land­slips tear apart the house he fought so hard to re­store.

Jagges­sar’s three-bed­room con­crete home on Ram­lal Street, Pe­nal, is split­ting in two, its foun­da­tion un­der­mined by mas­sive land­slips threat­en­ing three homes, in­clud­ing his own.

Last week­end, tor­ren­tial rains caused flood­wa­ters to in­un­date his home, push­ing down a con­crete wall. Des­per­ate to save his house, Jagges­sar, 63, and his sons dug a trench through their kitchen and smashed an­oth­er con­crete wall to drain the wa­ter.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, Jagges­sar plead­ed for as­sis­tance, say­ing his home would soon col­lapse if noth­ing was done.

“I gave my life to re­build­ing this home af­ter the fire. Now, every time it rains, I see my years of sac­ri­fice go­ing down the drain. I used all my young, hard-earned mon­ey to build this house, and now, in my old age, I can’t en­joy it. I’m watch­ing every day, hop­ing the rain doesn’t fall. My life de­pends on it be­cause I am sick­ly,” he said.

Jagges­sar, who lives across the street from the con­stituen­cy of­fice of Op­po­si­tion Leader and MP for Siparia Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, said his pleas for help have gone unan­swered.

“My home is break­ing apart. Every time it rains, I am fac­ing this. I al­ready con­demned two rooms, and now I can­not even cook in my kitchen,” he said.

Re­count­ing Sun­day’s or­deal, he added, “Around 6:30 in the morn­ing, my whole house flood­ed be­cause of the rains. I had to cut drains and break a wall to get the wa­ter out. Two rooms are con­demned, and I can’t even cook.”

Jagges­sar, who suf­fers from di­a­betes and three clogged ar­ter­ies, said the sit­u­a­tion has made his health more dire.

“I haven’t eat­en be­cause of the wor­ries. Any­time the rain falls, it’s more prob­lems.”

He al­so re­vealed that his daugh­ter’s home had col­lapsed due to a land­slip a year ago, forc­ing her to move in with rel­a­tives.

Point­ing to the 36-foot trench they dug, he es­ti­mat­ed that re­pairs, in­clud­ing a re­tain­ing wall and prop­er drainage, would cost around $40,000—an amount he can­not af­ford.

“The coun­cil­lor and chair­man know about this, and they said the Land Set­tle­ment Agency (LSA) needs to step in,” he said.

His ten-year-old grand­son showed a bruise on his knee from a fall near the land­slip.

Con­tact­ed for com­ment, the chair­man of the Pe­nal/Debe Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion Gow­tam Ma­haraj con­firmed that the sit­u­a­tion was re­port­ed to the LSA.

“On May 17, LSA rep­re­sen­ta­tives con­duct­ed a site vis­it to as­sess the dam­age,” Ma­haraj said. “The lat­est de­struc­tion oc­curred on No­vem­ber 14 fol­low­ing heavy rain­fall. The cor­po­ra­tion has pro­vid­ed re­lief sup­plies, but re­pairs fall un­der the LSA’s ju­ris­dic­tion.”

Coun­cil­lor Shan­ty Boodram, fa­mil­iar with Jagges­sar’s plight, not­ed that land­slips are a re­cur­ring prob­lem in the area. “The re­pairs fall un­der the purview of the LSA,” she said.

An LSA of­fi­cial stat­ed that they would in­ves­ti­gate and take ac­tion if the mat­ter falls un­der their ju­ris­dic­tion. —RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA