As she covered her nose with her hand in her gallery overlooking the Moruga Road yesterday, 82-year-old Joyce Woods blamed her hoarse voice on the dust in the atmosphere.
“It affecting me very bad, you hear how I talking, the cold not going at all. We eating dust, we drinking dust. They not fixing the road at all, at all,” complained Woods.
From as early as 6 am, residents began burning tyres and debris along the Moruga Road, Indian Walk, near the 3rd Company Road, in protest over the dust problems and lack of pipe-borne water.
The residents told Guardian Media that about six months ago, the Ministry of Works and Transport fixed a landslip on the road and about a month ago a drain was built, but the road was not paved.
To make matters worse, they said for the past two months, they have been getting an irregular pipe-borne water supply.
The last time they got water, Woods said, was two weeks ago.
“For Divali, yes we had water and as Divali done, like Christians don’t want water, we don’t have to clean. If we do get, it is one, 12 (midnight) and when you wake 6 o’clock water gone, no water. Right now, the pipe dry.”
She said last week they requested and received a truck-borne supply of water from WASA.
Another resident, Kennisha Elliot, said elderly people and children were getting sick as a result of the dust problem.
“The dust is killing them. The children cannot come out to play because it is too much dust,” she lamented.
She said they cannot even clean for Christmas because of the amount of dust they are faced with on a daily basis.
“They patch-up here (the road) and leave it so. When cars passing, they sticking, they scraping, is too much.
“We need to get the road fixed. Also, we hardly have water in the area. They need to do something about this,” she lamented.
Another resident, Leeann Woods complained, “If the sun shine is dust, all on the table, all inside. I cannot clean up for the Christmas. Not only me, residents in the area. They need to do something about this.”
She said there were two asthmatic children in the community and her son was also affected.
“My son was home for two weeks with the cold because of this dust. I have a ten-month-old nephew,” she complained.
Leeann said residents will continue to protest until their issues are addressed.
A motorist who was driving past during the protest supported the residents. He said the road was damaging his vehicle.
Moruga/Tableland MP Michelle Benjamin said based on what was told to her, a shortage of bitumen seemed to be one of the reasons that the road had not been paved.
However, she said, the lack of water was an issue throughout the constituency, including other areas in Moruga, Hindustan and Barrackpore.
Guardian Media reached out to the ministry and WASA for comment but up to last evening, none was received.
