RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Six hous­es are on the brink of col­lapse and 15 more fam­i­lies are in dan­ger of be­ing cut off as two ma­jor land­slips de­te­ri­o­rate rapid­ly at Pluck Road, San Fran­cique.

Res­i­dents and busi­ness own­ers yes­ter­day took ac­tion by stag­ing a fiery block­ade across the road, which had dropped more than 15 feet.

When Guardian Me­dia ar­rived on the scene, the pave­ment was cracked and pedes­tri­ans gin­ger­ly made their way down the precipice to­wards the San Fran­cique Pres­by­ter­ian School.

The re­mains of two hous­es which tum­bled down the precipice could be seen. Six more hous­es bore cracks and elec­tric­i­ty poles leaned pre­car­i­ous­ly. 

Res­i­dent Em­ma Mo­hammed, whose home had slipped down, said it was ter­ri­fy­ing liv­ing in the sink­ing house.

“At nights, we hear the roof bang­ing. We don’t know if the roof will fall in on us but we are pray­ing for help. We have nowhere else to go,” Mo­hammed said.

Say­ing the land­fill was man­made, Mo­hammed said a four-inch wa­ter line broke in April and it took 12 days for WASA to fix it. By then, the land­slip had al­ready claimed an ex­panse of land, caus­ing the road to sink.

Own­er of Val­mart Ex­press Min­i­mart Va­lene Ram­sun­dars­ingh-Mo­hammed said busi­ness had dwin­dled be­cause of the state of the road.

“We al­ready deal­ing with COVID and with this land­slip, things have be­come worse be­cause our sup­pli­ers hes­i­tate to come in­to the com­mu­ni­ty be­cause of the state of the roads,” Ram­sun­dars­ingh- Mo­hammed said.

She said when the road start­ed sink­ing last year, re­peat­ed calls were made to the Works Min­istry.

“They promised to fix it in Jan­u­ary but up to now noth­ing was done,” she added.

“We are plead­ing with the Gov­ern­ment to come and help us. We are tax-pay­ing cit­i­zens and we re­al­ly need as­sis­tance,” Ram­sun­dars­ingh-Mo­hammed said.

Pluck Road Vil­lage Coun­cil pres­i­dent Son­ny­lal Sookhoo said res­i­dents came to­geth­er and pooled mon­ey to fix the road them­selves but de­spite their ef­forts, the land­fill wors­ened.

“It is heart­break­ing to see chil­dren walk­ing down that bro­ken pave­ment precipice to get to school. It is dan­ger­ous for peo­ple and mo­torists,” he said.

Siparia Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion chair­man Di­nesh Sankers­ingh said the road fell un­der the Works Min­istry. 

“Peo­ple have been neg­a­tive­ly af­fect­ed. Traf­fic is at a stand­still. You can­not sub­ject peo­ple to a life like this. They can­not go to work, their busi­ness­es are af­fect­ed, the Gov­ern­ment needs to act now. This is not a par­ty is­sue, this is a cit­i­zen is­sue,” Sankers­ingh said.

He not­ed that the cor­po­ra­tion has tried to as­sist but with lim­it­ed re­sources, lit­tle could be done.

Coun­cil­lor for Av­o­cat/San Fran­cique Dood­nath Mayrhoo said if noth­ing is done, the res­i­dents will stage a protest out­side the min­istry.

“There is too much ne­glect tak­ing place in Op­po­si­tion con­stituen­cies. We will come to Port-of-Spain and protest if noth­ing is done,” Mayrhoo said.

He not­ed that the area was land­slip-prone and heavy trucks which pass along the road have af­fect­ed the road and sur­round­ing hous­es.

Mayrhoo al­so said apart from the six homes, if the road goes down there are 15 homes in San­ta Ce­cil­ia Trace that will be un­able to come out to get sup­plies.

A source at the Min­istry of Works said the mat­ter is be­ing ad­dressed, not­ing that a fea­si­bil­i­ty study was done re­cent­ly.

Mes­sages were left for Work Min­is­ter Ro­han Sinanan, who promised to is­sue a com­ment no the is­sue.

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