Rad­hi­ca De Sil­va

Se­nior Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Hav­ing lost four hous­es be­cause of land­slips, res­i­dents of Sa­ha­dath Trace, Princes Town, are call­ing on the Gov­ern­ment to en­sure that road re­pairs are done prop­er­ly, say­ing on­go­ing works in their com­mu­ni­ty have failed mul­ti­ple times, leav­ing them bat­tling with dust and in­con­ve­nience.

Res­i­dent Tara­dath Bridge­mo­han said fam­i­lies had lost homes due to what they be­lieve are wa­ter leaks.

“Since 2017, I have lost my house on the op­po­site side of this land­slip. I moved across to my broth­er’s house. That house now al­so gone. The neigh­bour’s house was al­so col­lapsed due to an al­leged WASA wa­ter line leak,” he said.

“In 2024–25, I moved to my par­ents’ house across here. This went down due to an al­leged wa­ter leak. WASA said they did not see any over­head leaks. Then one morn­ing we woke up, saw wa­ter on the road, we called them, they came and fixed the main. Two weeks af­ter that, an­oth­er leak came. Present­ly, they have cut all the lines from the area, but they have not com­pen­sat­ed us.”

He said four hous­es had been de­stroyed, af­fect­ing five fam­i­lies.

“We need com­pen­sa­tion, we need a house. We are ask­ing for some kind of help,” he said.

Bridge­mo­han al­so said tem­po­rary works were not enough and had start­ed to col­lapse as well.

“They put sand, they pass the roller on it, they put some boul­ders over it. Even­tu­al­ly, it is go­ing to soak again and sink again,” Tara­dath added.

Res­i­dent, Ramzan Ho­sein, said the back­fill was poor­ly done and wa­ter had been col­lect­ing.

“When the rain falls, it be­comes a pond be­cause it is about 50 feet long and about six or eight feet deep, and they have no out­let. Every week, the cor­po­ra­tion has to send two loads of ma­te­r­i­al. The same thing is hap­pen­ing,” he said.

“No­body is look­ing in­to the rea­son why.

“We are high­light­ing this be­cause we are tax­pay­ers, and we want bet­ter work for our mon­ey.”

An­oth­er res­i­dent, Sheri­da Mo­hamed-Rah­man, said the poor road con­di­tions were dis­rupt­ing dai­ly life.

“It has brought the res­i­dents to their knees. Health is a con­cern,” she said.

“Old peo­ple, young chil­dren, every­one af­fect­ed by dust. The road is in such a state, you could hard­ly use it.

“Busi­ness­es are suf­fer­ing. We want ac­count­abil­i­ty. We want prop­er work. Do the job well the first time, so you don’t have to re­do it. We are tax-pay­ing peo­ple. All we are ask­ing for is good wa­ter, good health, good roads.”