Armed with plac­ards, Pi­paro res­i­dents braved the rain yes­ter­day to protest, warn­ing they could face death if the Pi­paro mud vol­cano erupts and they are un­able to es­cape due to the de­plorable state of ac­cess roads.

Since 2019, the Pi­paro vol­cano has shown signs of pos­si­ble erup­tion. Res­i­dents fear that if the worst hap­pens, they may be un­able to es­cape or re­ceive time­ly help be­cause of the pot­holed, bumpy roads.

Busi­ness­man Rol­ly Jit­ta said sev­er­al key ac­cess roads, in­clud­ing Pas­cal Road, St John’s Road, Sis­ters Road, Robin­son Hill, and Ho­sei­nee Trace, are in dire need of re­pairs.

“These roads have be­come dan­ger­ous for mo­torists as well. Peo­ple are no longer com­ing in­to this area be­cause of how bad the roads are,” Jit­ta said.

Not­ing that sev­er­al busi­ness­es in the area are on the brink of col­lapse, Jit­ta said two have al­ready shut down as de­liv­ery trucks can­not pass through the area.

“Chick­en farms along Thomas Ross Road suf­fer be­cause feed trucks can’t get through. Taxis no longer come here, and peo­ple have stopped vis­it­ing Pas­cal Road en­tire­ly. Sales have dropped by 90 per cent,” Jit­ta claimed.

Pas­tor Robert Sook­er­many ex­pressed con­cern over the im­pact on res­i­dents’ spir­i­tu­al well-be­ing.

“Peo­ple can’t get to church be­cause of the state of the roads. It’s be­com­ing im­pos­si­ble for the com­mu­ni­ty to stay con­nect­ed,” he said.

Re­tiree Ma­jel­la Knutt-Piper said the sit­u­a­tion was fur­ther com­pound­ed by wa­ter line leaks, not­ing that the roads are of­ten dug up for re­pairs.

While Guardian Me­dia con­duct­ed in­ter­views, sev­er­al dri­vers were seen ex­pe­ri­enc­ing dif­fi­cul­ty nav­i­gat­ing their ve­hi­cles along the treach­er­ous roads, with some skid­ding and oth­ers un­able to move up in­clines.

Res­i­dent Steve Vasquez called on the au­thor­i­ties to ad­dress the is­sue ur­gent­ly. “We need help now,” he said, adding, “The roads are a dan­ger to every­one liv­ing here.”

Res­i­dent Di­ane Shah-Fye echoed the call for im­me­di­ate ac­tion, say­ing she some­times can­not go to work be­cause of the bad roads.

“We’re beg­ging for help. This sit­u­a­tion is un­bear­able. Our chil­dren some­times can’t even go to school. My grand­chil­dren can­not go to school. We need these roads paved now.”

Princes Town MP Bar­ry Padarath, who joined the protest, said the Gov­ern­ment was alert­ed to the de­te­ri­o­rat­ing road con­di­tions in 2019 when the threat of vol­canic ac­tiv­i­ty be­gan to flare up. How­ev­er, he claimed the lack of ac­tion to ad­dress the prob­lem has left res­i­dents feel­ing aban­doned.

“Some of the hous­es here are al­so im­pact­ed. Res­i­dents here are like sit­ting ducks be­cause the in­fra­struc­ture sur­round­ing this area is col­laps­ing,” Padarath said.

He added, “These res­i­dents are in a death trap be­cause of the bad roads and the vol­cano. It can­not be that Pi­paro is cut off from the rest of the coun­try and there is no as­sis­tance. If some­thing hap­pens and we have an emer­gency, what then hap­pens? Will they say sor­ry when peo­ple die?”

Guardian Me­dia reached out to Works Min­is­ter Ro­han Sinanan to find out when the roads will be fixed but he did not re­spond up to late yes­ter­day.