Kevon Felmine

Still reel­ing from the ef­fects of last De­cem­ber's oil spill, mem­bers of the Oys­ter Conch Shrimp and Mus­sel As­so­ci­a­tion (OC­SM) are now con­tem­plat­ing le­gal ac­tion against Petrotrin over loss of in­come ow­ing to the dam­age done to the man­groves.The group vis­it­ed the T&T Guardian's south bu­reau last Thurs­day bear­ing a buck­et of dead oys­ters and oil-cov­ered man­grove roots.They called on Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to in­ter­vene, say­ing they plan to take their protest to Petrotrin's ad­min­is­tra­tion build­ing in Point-a-Pierre.

Group pres­i­dent Asha Syl­van said Petrotrin's head of cor­po­rate so­cial re­spon­si­bil­i­ty, George Com­mis­siong, had giv­en them the all-clear to re­sume the har­vest­ing in the man­groves last month, but said there was noth­ing alive for them to reap when they went as the area was still feel­ing the ef­fects of the oil spill.

She said: "On April 24 I went to col­lect an agree­ment in Petrotrin and Mr George Com­mis­siong told me this is the fi­nal pay­ment and that we could be­gin to har­vest our oys­ters again. We went down to the man­groves on April 25, my group and I, in Aripero, and there was oil stuck to the roots and all the oys­ters were dead.

"When we told Petrotrin what we saw, they told us tidal wash­ing will take care of that, but that might take three years. We, as the oys­ter ven­dors, have been se­vere­ly af­fect­ed and the mon­ey that Petrotrin gave us is less than what we were mak­ing be­fore the oil spill."Petrotrin told us to go and pick up some oth­er trade. But this is what we grow up in, this is our liveli­hood, this is what we know."

Syl­van ex­plained that Petrotrin made four pay­ments be­tween Jan­u­ary and April, but ex­clud­ed pay­ment for pub­lic hol­i­days and Sun­days when they would make their high­est prof­its.Petrotrin has dished out over $450,000 in com­pen­sa­tion to 14 ven­dors, but the group said life in the man­groves will take years to re­pop­u­late.

Loss of a liveli­hood

Oys­ter har­vester Dhan­raj Goolcha­ran said the oil has clogged the roots of the man­groves, pre­vent­ing them from ab­sorb­ing wa­ter.He said the leaves on the trees in the man­grove are al­so turn­ing yel­low and drop­ping, but Petrotrin is now re­fus­ing to take re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for the en­vi­ron­men­tal dis­as­ter."When we took it back to Petrotrin they said the man­groves be­long to the coun­try and they can't com­pen­sate us for it be­cause it is the Gov­ern­ment's land," he said.

"This com­pa­ny called Petrotrin is a mil­lion-dol­lar com­pa­ny and they can't dump their waste in the man­grove where we are sur­viv­ing and still they have their jobs."We have fam­i­lies to mind like every­body else. Look at the po­si­tion they put us in, my chil­dren have to go to school."What will my chil­dren grow up to be? We are work­ing to make sure our chil­dren go to school, but they can on­ly go to school for three days in the week be­cause I have no mon­ey to pay for trans­port."

He added, "My Prime Min­is­ter said the poor peo­ple will rise, but I can't see this hap­pen­ing when this mil­lion-dol­lar com­pa­ny is dump­ing their waste here. I am afraid my chil­dren will nev­er be able to get a prop­er job. I am try­ing to pro­vide for my chil­dren so they can get a prop­er job and not be low-grade peo­ple like me. I nev­er went to school and right now I am in my for­ties.

"I have made up my mind to go in front of Petrotrin with my three chil­dren and a buck­et of oys­ters if have to reach to that. I can't mind my chil­dren, be­cause this big com­pa­ny has dumped on my liveli­hood," Goolcha­ran said.