Residents of East Port-of-Spain and environs have expressed fear of a possible outbreak of the Zika virus, cholera or other infectious diseases since homeless people and drug addicts have taken over the East Dry River and are dumping their garbage in the watercourse.
The Sunday Guardian was taken on a tour of the area by Port-of-Spain resident Lincon Griffith. The stairway leading down to the river was littered with scraps of old clothes and garbage–and the stench of human faeces was strong.
There were several homeless people, and some who appeared to be drug addicts, under the bridge at the corner of Prince Street and Piccadilly Street. One woman was naked and bathing in water from a burst, overhead main. The river bed was their home and was interspersed with makeshift cardboard and wooden shacks. Some areas had pools of stagnant water, cracked flooring and piles of garbage along the length of the river.
Griffith said: "The threat of a disease breaking out is real, like the Zika virus where mosquitoes can breed in the water left in the cracks in the river bed.
"When this is combined with the amount of rubbish, structural damage on the dry river floor that needs serious attention, it's a disaster waiting to happen.
"The river normally overflows its banks, we are in the wet season now, with the weather people predicting heavy rainfall, if the river is allowed to deteriorate further, it can cause further damage.
"It's very important that the residents' concerns o be addressed to keep the Zika virus or other diseases from causing a major disaster within the city area," he said.
Griffith pointed out a diseased tree that was cut, thrown in the river and burned instead of being hauled away.
Griffith said the culture of non-maintenance and passing the buck on responsibility was endemic with successive governments.
He is sure that a cleanup could be effected quickly, but said all the repair work would be to no avail if the homelesss and drug addicts were still there as they dump a sizeable amount of rubbish in the river.
Policing
Duncan Street resident Hazel Smith said after the river was cleaned up, it needed policing.
She said the city police had the responsibility to do that because it was the Port-of-Spain Corporation's area. The corporation has the authority to remove the homeless or drug addicts from the river.
Port-of-Spain Mayor Keron Valentine said he was very conscious of the situation.
He said when he first took office in February, one of his very first acts was to go down to the East Dry River, with an entire work crew from the Port-of-Spain Corporation with backhoes and trucks, and remove and dismantle shacks and clean up the area.
Valentine said he also went before the Joint Select Committee (JSC) of the Parliament and stated his case "very boisterously" with the general state of homelessness in the capital city.
He reiterated it had reached near epidemic proportions in Port-of-Spain and was totally fed up of the homeless situation and the socially displaced people who were responsible for the deplorable condition of the city, but was not giving up.