The pungent smell of faeces wafted through the $28 million Carenage Fishing Centre last Wednesday.
It was after 12.30 pm and fishermen at the state-of-the-art facility were not eating their lunch but holding their breaths from the offensive odour that permeated from an uncovered sewer treatment plant.
Since last year, the awful scent has been disrupting the operations of more than 100 fishermen who use the facility that was opened by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley almost five years ago.
On June 9, 2018, Rowley commissioned the centre, located on the Western Main Road, Carenage, which falls in his Diego Martin West constituency.
Delivering the feature address, Rowley described the centre as an expensive project and urged its users to keep it clean since the facility was a gift from the people of T&T.
The PM also accused the former People’s Partnership government of leaving the facility to rot during their 2010 to 2015 term in office, as the site had been vandalised, pilfered and occupied by squatters.
In all, it took almost nine years to complete the centre, which was built by the Urban Development Corporation of T&T and managed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries.
Fresh fish is sold daily by fishermen to vendors at the centre.
Carenage Fishing Association PRO Randy Quintero believes the centre was the best thing the Government could have provided to the community, whose lifeline and lifeblood is fishing. But almost five years after its opening, the facility has faced a myriad of issues.
Quintero said days after Rowley cut the ribbon, the property flooded after a heavy downpour.
“About three times after that the centre came underwater,” he said.
The centre is equipped with washrooms, a retail and wholesale area, 80 lockers for fishermen, a net repair zone, parking spaces, ice-making machines and a designated location for fishermen to repair their boats.
Fast track five years after its commissioning and Quintero, who has been a fisherman for decades, says the multi-million dollar facility is being neglected. He said the fishermen have been putting up with a lot—ranging from non-working toilets, stealing of items and an awful smell while conducting business.
“The problems seem to be never-ending,” Quintero said.
Quintero highlighted an opened sewer treatment plant which has been giving off an unbearable stench since last year after it began malfunctioning. He said a crew was called in to repair it but in opening the two covers of the plant, the workmen damaged one.
“It was never fixed or replaced. So, night and day we have to inhale the smell of faeces emanating from the plant. Is months we putting up with this stink odour. It’s unbearable now. This is a serious health hazard to the fishermen.”
Quintero also showed sewer water draining from the plant onto a strip of concrete and coursing its way into the nearby beach, where adults and children frequently bathe.
“They are oblivious to what is going on. I am sure where they are bathing there is bacteria in the water.”
Not far from the plant, Quintero lifted an aluminium grill to show a choked underground drain where fish remnants and blood had settled.
“We have to deal with this stink smell too.”
Above the drain is where the fishermen clean their catch of the day.
“Is I and other fishermen does have to clean this when it starts to smell up the place,” he said, raising his hands in frustration.
The centre has no janitors.
He said parts from one of two ice-making machines on the compound were also stolen while security guards worked around the clock.
“It have security guards and things are still going missing. And is not no small parts.”
Quintero said three times fishermen beat vagrants who pilfered from the facility.
“We don’t tolerate stealing here.”
He also complained that the two toilets the fishermen have been non-functional for months. The toilets, he said, had become a free for all and a public washroom before this.
“Is every Tom, Dick and Harry using it. Everybody in Carenage tell themselves the centre is a Government building so they could leave their house in the morning and come here to use the toilet... and when you tell them to clean it, they informing you that is the Government place and it’s for the people in Carenage.”
He added, “Everybody in the community have guns. You feel I could tell a man not to use the toilet? I have to keep my mouth shut. Now is we who suffering.”
When the facility swung open its doors, Quintero said there were initially three people responsible for cleaning and upkeep of the building but they only dealt with part of the facility.
“And then they stopped cleaning the back of the building where the fishermen would operate. They made us to understand that they were instructed to clean only the front of the building where customers would buy fish. So, who have to maintain in the back here?” he asked.
“Miss is I, my sons and one or two fishermen have been cleaning this place for the last three years. This is ridiculous, man. Unacceptable.”
Quintero admitted the fishermen no longer pay a monthly rent of $300 to store their fishing equipment in cubicles.
“We ain’t paying no money again because you see what going on here.”
Describing the facility as one of the best in the country, Quintero said it pains to see it being neglected and not maintained.
“The Government spent a tonne of money on the facility and just forget about it. It is slowly falling into ruins. What is the sense you building a million-dollar facility and you can’t maintain it? That making any sense? I tired see people from various Government departments come here and look at the problems affecting the fishermen and do nothing. It’s like our plight is falling on deaf ears.”
Contacted on the issue, National Agricultural Marketing Development Corporation (NAMDEVCO) CEO Nirmalla Debysingh confirmed that the centre is in a transitional phase. She said the Agriculture Ministry is in the process of handing over the facility to NAMDEVCO.
“So, we are not solely transitioned as yet.”
While admitting the facility has some problems - mainly the uncovered sewer treatment plant, Debysingh could not give a time frame as to when the problem will be rectified.
“I am not at liberty to say anything right now. I answer to a board of directors. I take instructions from my board. We will decide what has to be done,” she said.
The T&T Guardian also WhatsApped Agriculture Minister Kazim Hosein outlining the issues affecting the fishermen but did not get a response.