Raw sewerage, worms and sludge are filling the home of Ann Marie Bhagwandass as a massive landslip pushes a concrete drain through her crumbling home at Tableland, south Trinidad. A room at the back of the house already has come crashing down and each morning, Bhagwandass and her family have to step over debris to get to the bathroom.
Fearful of danger, Bhagwandass is making an urgent call on Government to immediately relocate her family. As she stood among the debris, Bhagwandass said her troubles started in December 2011 when the main drain, which runs along the Naparima/Mayaro Road, became clogged. She explained that the backup of water undermined a hill above her home.
Within the space of a few weeks, Bhagwandass said, the culvert started to crack. "When the rain fell, all the water would gush down into my home," Bhagwandass added. She made several reports to the Princes Town Regional Corporation but no help was forthcoming.
She explained that recent rainfall caused the entire box drain to give way and come crashing into her home pushing down the wall of a room. "It is terrible for us because of the smell. Every morning we see fat toilet worms crawling inside the house. The stench is overpowering and my son (Daniel) is asthmatic. We cannot stay here any more," Bhagwandass said.
Daniel is supposed to write the Secondary Entrance Assessment exams this year but has had difficulty studying because of the stench. Bhagwandass later built drains inside her living room to keep out the flow of sewerage. A neighbour, Alicia Seecharan, said her two children Anya, four, and Alyah, two, could not play in the yard because of the stench.
"They are taking too long to fix this. We cannot stay in our yards. We want the Government to help us," Seecharan said. Both women said they contacted Moruga/Tableland MP Clifton De Coteau but no help was forthcoming. He did not respond to calls from the T&T Guardian.