Fed up over the bad condition of their road, residents of Caratal Road, Gasparillo, are calling on the authorities to initiate urgent repairs.
So deplorable the state of the road that residents say taxis seldom service the area and the garbage truck and even the ambulance also refuse to traverse the area.
Eugene Findley, the owner of a gym, said his business and his home are being affected because of the caving land.
He said, “It started with a leak every week, leak after leak, not fixing it on time, taking a length of time to fix and the road start to cave down.”
Since the land movement began last November, Findley said he has been losing customers.
“Well I have no park (parking space) because of that now. I have no park, just a couple cars (could park),” he said.
He said the walls in his house are also cracking.
He said, “If they don’t fix anything by the rainy season I’ll be in real danger, more cracks and movements. I might lose my house because it really terrible,” he lamented.
Findley said about 11 households now have no garbage collection because the garbage truck has stopped servicing the area.
Findley wants the Couva Tabaquite Talparo Regional Corporation to construct a retaining wall to stop the land from caving.
Findley said while the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) repaired one of the leaks last November, proper restoration work was not done.
“WASA came and fix the leak but they not doing the recovery work, like finishing properly. The longer they take to do that the worse it will be because they do the pipework and they did not fix and the rain come and water gone down,” he said.
Another resident, Ronnie Alphonso said they made several complaints to WASA.
He said, “We complain as we see a lil leak, we tell them about it. They wait until the road get to this condition now they want to come and do a lil repairs or a lil something on it, that is very bad. The road is real bad my car damage here my bumper rip open and other people complaining,” he lamented.
Alphonso added that people use the road as an access road to Gasparillo and other areas when there is traffic on the highway.
When contacted Tabaquite MP Anita Haynes sayid she has been making representations in Parliament, on social media platforms and through the media for the landslips and road in her area to be repaired.
She said the regional corporation is aware of the situation at Caratal Road but they have to await release from Central Government.
Meanwhile, WASA explained that the land slippage in the area caused a leak on the distribution pipeline at the end of October 2021 and again in early November 2021.
The authority said after the second leak the pipeline was diverted to avoid further leaks.
However, WASA said it would revisit the area today to try to conduct further restoration. “However, there is an extensive area of landslip, which extends beyond the point of the pipeline and repairs that requires rehabilitation,” the authority stated.