Fishermen in the rural village of Parlatuvier can look forward to a new jetty in the next fiscal year, Secretary of Infrastructure, Quarries and the Environment Kwesi Des Vignes says.
Speaking at this week’s post-Executive Council media briefing at the Victor E Bruce Financial Complex in Scarborough on Wednesday, Des Vignes said the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) wants a safe jetty for the fishermen.
To this end, he said the Executive Council had given its approval to engage the services of the National Infrastructure Development Company Ltd (NIDCO) to demolish the existing jetty and construct a new one. “The blue economy is very important to us here in Tobago and we see Parlatuvier jetty and Parlatuvier community as a key port for the sustainable exploitation of the blue economy and fishing economy in particular,” Des Vignes said.
He said although the THA was facing budgetary constraints because of its allocation from Trinidad, he intended to make representation to Chief Secretary Kelvin Charles for the jetty to be built.
“He (Kelvin Charles) has already given an indication that he is very supportive of the project,” Des Vignes said.
Area Representative Farley Augustus said while he was happy to hear a new jetty will be built soon he had his doubts, as a new jetty was earmarked for the area before many times before.
“It’s not the first time that the Parlatuvier jetty was budgeted for in a ‘new’ fiscal year and I will now hold the Executive Council to its promise,” he told Tobago Today.
He said the residents have been pushing for a new jetty for “a long time... as the first jetty was never properly constructed in the first place.”
Augustus said the villagers are also “demanding that the fishing depot facility that is annexed to the jetty, and for which a platform was built donkey years ago, is also completed in the new fiscal year.”
Pledging his support to assist in the completion of both projects, he said his community is “grateful for this renewed promise and anxiously anticipate this gift to the community.”
