Although the Sangre Grande Community Swimming Pool has been closed for two years, the Ministry of Sport and Community Development (MSCD) has still been paying five employees attached to the facility.
Two security guards also work at the facility on a shift system.
Residents in the northeastern region told Guardian Media that the non-functional pool has been a wanton waste of taxpayers’ money and resources.
The residents said the pool has not been achieving what it was designed to do – provide development among the community’s youth, swimming classes for schools, water aerobics for the elderly and recreational activities for communities. Instead, they described the pool as a disgrace and an eyesore.
The MSDC, however, has defended the workers being assigned to the facility, stating only essential personnel were kept on safeguarding the facility and ensuring routine maintenance.
“That is nonsense, man,” resident Cliff Patterson, of El Carmen Extension, said regarding the workers’ presence.
“People are getting paid to do nothing in that facility. Money just going down the drain. They could put that money and resources to better use.”
Patterson lives a stone’s throw away from the six-lane pool, which he frequented as a young boy with his friends.
The 25-metre-long outdoor pool was commissioned in 1975.
He said it was a crying shame to see the pool now filled with rainwater, algae, moss and mosquito larvae and not young people who need to focus on sports rather than crime and guns.
“If you look inside the pool, you would see frogs ... some of them even dead. It minding big frogs. It’s an eyesore.”
Pleading for the pool to be reopened, Greenidge Street resident Ainsley Bernard said it was beyond comprehension to have five workers doing nothing and collecting a salary.
“The pool is not generating any revenue. This is the only pool in the northeastern region for the people and it has been down so long,” he complained.
“The Government has to do better than that. We want our pool in working order.”
A visibly upset Derek Joseph, of Sellier Street, said the only thing these workers could do was cut the grass growing around the premises.
“They can’t answer the facility’s phone because that has been out of service for months. They not skilled enough to fix a pump if it break down. So what is their function? To come to work and twiddle their thumbs. Why they can’t work at an open facility? You telling me you need five people do to what? What?”
One vociferous resident who refused to give his name described the pool’s closure as a “disgrace.”
The MSCD, in collaboration with SporTT, is responsible for the management and oversight of all community swimming pools.
When Guardian Media visited the pool at the corner of Sukhram and Sellier Streets last week, the workers were seen sitting idly by.
One of the five workers, speaking on the condition of anonymity, cited “mechanical problems” with the pump which led to the pool’s closure for the past “three years.”
He said the workers “have a contract to fill so we have to be here stil,l” although there was little or nothing to do.
He explained that the facility has a complement of ten workers but when the pool was closed, five workers were reassigned to other pools across the country.
“We are maintaining the facility as best as we could.”
The facility has a pump house, a building for technical staff, including change and washrooms, and a first aid room.
Signs of neglect were evident, as the walls around the facility were covered in moss.
Sport Ministry: Pool closed for health reasons
In a press release last Thursday, the MSCD stated it decided to close the pool in 2021 to safeguard the community from potential health and safety issues stemming from the pump and filtration system.
However, plans were unveiled for extensive refurbishment works on the pool.
In 2022/2023, the MSCD explained that requests for works to be done on the pool went out for tendering but on both occasions, the contractors failed to submit the required documents and the process was not fully compliant with the new procurement legislation.
The MSCD said it is currently engaged in the procurement process to select qualified contractors for the execution of a major facelift on the facility.
These works will include a thorough mechanical overhaul, pool resurfacing, upgrades to sanitary facilities, painting of the perimeter fence, advanced enhancements to perimeter lighting, pavilion refurbishment and an overhaul of the air conditioning system, including other upgrades that will transform the facility in 2024. A comprehensive improvement to the potable water supply is also planned.
Once work begins, it will be completed in three months, the MSCD stated.
Guardian Media also sent a list of questions to Sport and Community Development Minister Shamfa Cudjoe-Lewis regarding the pool.
It was drawn to Cudjoe-Lewis’ attention that although the pool had been closed, five staff members had been showing up for work daily, which residents felt was a waste of taxpayers’ money.
Responding to this question, the ministry’s corporate communications manager Antonette Brotherson-Brusco stated, “During the closure, we have kept on only essential personnel to safeguard the facility and ensure routine maintenance, but we look forward to the full complement of staff and community users returning once the upgrades are completed.”
As to how much it would cost the ministry to have the pool operational again, Brotherson-Brusco wrote, “We do not anticipate that this will exceed $1 million.”
