RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

On the hills of Gas­par­il­lo in south Trinidad lies a com­mu­ni­ty called Spring­land where boun­ti­ful sup­plies of fresh spring wa­ter cas­cade down­hill.

How­ev­er, since 2011, bad roads and land­slips have trans­formed the com­mu­ni­ty in­to a dump­ing ground.

Be­cause of land­slips, garbage trucks no longer en­ter the area. Some res­i­dents are forced to walk for 500 me­tres to dump waste in a com­mu­nal dump­ster on Caratal Road, set up by the Cou­va Tabaquite/Tal­paro Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion.

Many frail res­i­dents who can­not make the trek to the dump­ster, are forced to burn their rub­bish near their homes.

When the Guardian vis­it­ed the area, stacks of glass bot­tles and oth­er non-flam­ma­ble waste were seen at the side of res­i­dents' homes. The hill­sides were al­so lit­tered with garbage.

In an in­ter­view res­i­dent Pa­tri­cia Williams said a few short years ago, peo­ple took dai­ly baths in the nat­ur­al spring wa­ter ponds while breath­ing in the clean air com­ing from the pris­tine sur­round­ings. Now with fre­quent dump­ing and pol­lu­tion, Williams said this was no longer pos­si­ble.

Williams said she was dis­heart­ened by the con­di­tions of her beloved com­mu­ni­ty. "Back in the day, this area was so beau­ti­ful. We still have clean air but life is very hard be­cause of the road con­di­tions."

She ex­plained that the Up­per San Fa­bi­en Road was con­nect­ed to the Caratal Road cir­cu­lar but af­ter the land­slip oc­curred, the com­mu­ni­ty be­came splin­tered.

With­in a few months, 17 fam­i­lies had to be re­lo­cat­ed, most of whom went to Gol­con­da. The road was nev­er fixed and the con­crete homes crum­bled over time.

Pen­sion­er Philip Green, 71, said his clos­est neigh­bours left the com­mu­ni­ty af­ter the land­slip claimed the road.

"I did not leave the vil­lage. I was not di­rect­ly af­fect­ed by the land­slip but many of my good neigh­bours were re­lo­cat­ed. The place was nev­er the same. This com­mu­ni­ty was de­stroyed be­cause of that land­slip," Green said. He ex­plained that taxis al­so stopped com­ing in­to the area and out­siders be­gan mov­ing in.

De­struc­tion of Agri­cul­ture

Ann Marie Brax­ton, whose great-grand­fa­ther Tony Fa­bi­en named the vil­lage, said agri­cul­ture was the main­stay in years gone by. She said it was now dif­fi­cult to get agri­cul­tur­al pro­duce out of the fields be­cause of the road con­di­tions.

"This has led many peo­ple to aban­don their agri­cul­tur­al es­tates. Young peo­ple nev­er went in­to agri­cul­ture even though the lands are very fer­tile," Brax­ton said.

Brax­ton's moth­er Lil­ian Brax­ton who is 93 years old, peeped out of her front win­dow while the Guardian crew con­duct­ed in­ter­views. Brax­ton said Lil­ian was ful­ly cog­ni­tive and was still able to do chores around the house. She said the crisp clean air and the pris­tine sur­round­ings gave most res­i­dents long life.

"This was a vil­lage where we looked af­ter each oth­er. The chil­dren all went to Caratal RC and they had re­spect for their el­ders. Now so many peo­ple have moved out and we do not know many who now live here," she said.

Brax­ton said her great-grand­fa­ther came from Nige­ria and af­ter get­ting pos­ses­sion of vast acreages, he di­vid­ed it up among fam­i­lies, many of whom still live in Spring­land to­day.

Neil Mod­este who lives with his moth­er Wendy Mod­este on the edge of the 2011 land­slip, said the rur­al com­mu­ni­ty has been ne­glect­ed by politi­cians.

"Peo­ple feel that we are not peo­ple too be­cause we live in the back here but we pay tax­es like every­one else. This was one of the nice vil­lages in the South but bad roads and land­slips have mashed up our com­mu­ni­ty life. Peo­ple can­not find com­fort here, not when you have to walk in­to the street for a mile with your gro­ceries or walk for half a mile to dump your garbage," Neil said.

He added that be­cause of the pris­tine sur­round­ings many vil­lagers opt­ed to face the hard­ships and stay in the vil­lage. Mod­este said the spring which gave Spring­land its name is no longer a ther­a­peu­tic meet­ing point for hap­py vil­lagers.

"The pol­lu­tion has de­stroyed this place. The pond is al­ways murky and a few years ago one of the neigh­bours Kwame Hinds drowned in the pond. Peo­ple hard­ly go there now but I re­mem­ber it as a hap­py part of my child­hood," Neil said.

The res­i­dents said land­slips are con­tin­u­ing to de­vel­op over the hilly road. On Tues­day, fol­low­ing heavy rains, part of the road caved in caus­ing an elec­tric­i­ty pole and a tree to fall on top of the house.

Robert Stroud said they have re­port­ed the con­tin­u­ous land­slips to their MP Dr Su­ruj Ram­bachan but cries have fall­en on deaf ears.

MP Ram­bachan re­sponds

How­ev­er, Ram­bachan said the land­slips at San Fa­bi­en were just a few oc­cur­ring in his con­stituen­cy.

"It is not fair for them to say help is not forth­com­ing. We have been ap­peal­ing to the Min­is­ter of Works for help be­cause the Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion can­not han­dle the ex­ten­sive land slip­page," Ram­bachan said.

He added that in Tor­tu­ga four hous­es were in dan­ger of col­lapse and were be­ing un­der­mined due to ex­ces­sive wa­ter com­ing from the road.

"At Sam­lals­ingh Trace a whole hill is slip­ping down and push­ing the house. In Caratal and Par­force Roads we have land­slips. There are al­so three land­slips at Caratal Ex­ten­sion Num­ber One and Map­pipire Road where the riv­er is en­croach­ing on the road. In Poona Road, there is a de­pres­sion about eight feet deep," Ram­bachan said. He added that the Min­istry must as­sist with fix­ing the land­slips and pre­serv­ing com­mu­ni­ty life.

Chair­man of the Cou­va/Tabaquite/Tal­paro Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion Hen­ry Awong said he was fa­mil­iar with the con­cerns of the vil­lagers. Awong said the Cor­po­ra­tion will pro­vide tem­po­rary re­lief for the land­slips un­til a per­ma­nent so­lu­tion is found.