RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

The long East­er week­end is not a time for cel­e­bra­tion for res­i­dents of com­mu­ni­ties in Gas­par­il­lo and Clax­ton Bay who staged protests yes­ter­day over wa­ter short­ages and di­lap­i­dat­ed in­fra­struc­ture. 

A day af­ter a truck dam­aged a di­lap­i­dat­ed wood­en bridge in their area, res­i­dents of Hous­sa Trace, Gas­par­il­lo, staged a fiery protest call­ing on the Min­istry of Works to fix the bridge.

One of the af­fect­ed res­i­dents, Kei­th Kow­lessar, said since the bridge col­lapsed com­muters have been forced to make a five-mile de­tour to get to Clax­ton Bay and Mayo and more than 20 farm­ers are un­able to get their pro­duce out.

“We have two bridges in this area that are in ur­gent need of re­pairs. This one is to­tal­ly im­pass­able now and we want the Min­is­ter of Works to bring in a bai­ley bridge or to fix this one now,” he said.

Andy Mun­gal said they have been com­plain­ing for years about the di­lap­i­dat­ed bridges.

“We want this bridge fixed now, im­me­di­ate­ly be­cause we are fed up with wait­ing. So long we wait­ing and look how the garbage truck got stuck on the bridge and mash it up,” Mun­gal said.

Ken­rick Win­ston-Nanan added: “Imag­ine the bread truck can­not come in to de­liv­er to the shops. A preg­nant woman could not get the am­bu­lance be­cause they had to pass all the way around to get to her.”

Coun­cil­lor for Caratal/Tor­tu­ga Jen­na Lee Ra­moutar-Ram­sa­roop said the Cou­va/Tabaquite/Tal­paro Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion has no funds to fix the road. She said Works Min­is­ter Ro­han Sinanan should in­stall a bai­ley bridge to bring some re­lief.

“Imag­ine each coun­cil­lor gets $28,000 per year. That can­not even fix a road much less a bridge,” she said.

Calls and mes­sages to Sinanan for com­ment on the sit­u­a­tion went unan­swered yes­ter­day.

In Clax­ton Bay, res­i­dents of Lodge Road, Hill­top Dri­ve and Rose Hill ex­pressed their frus­tra­tion over not hav­ing pipe-borne wa­ter for months by stag­ing a protest.

Car­ry­ing emp­ty buck­ets, con­tain­ers and bas­kets of dirty clothes, the res­i­dents called on WASA to send wa­ter to their area as soon as pos­si­ble.

“It’s three months now we can­not get wa­ter. All the clothes are dirty, we can­not wash wares. This is not what we pay for. We want WASA to send wa­ter now,” res­i­dent Agnes Joseph-Small said.

Janelle Finch, who ex­pressed con­cern about ris­ing COVID-19 cas­es, said: “When I bring back veg­eta­bles from the mar­ket I can­not wash them. There is no wa­ter. I have to buy wipes from Pen­ny­wise and put rub­bing al­co­hol on them and san­i­tize the veg­eta­bles.”

Finch said pre­vi­ous­ly res­i­dents re­ceived wa­ter every week but in Sep­tem­ber the sup­ply dwin­dled to once for the month and has been less fre­quent since.

She added: “The clothes are pil­ing up. We can­not wash wares or clean.”

An­oth­er res­i­dent Leon Borne, who lives at Lodge Road, said when­ev­er they call WASA they get ex­cus­es that the pump has bro­ken down.

“This is more than six months now we haven’t had wa­ter. WASA could do a much bet­ter job,” he said. 

Ef­forts to con­tact WASA of­fi­cials were fu­tile.