JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Sunday, July 27, 2025

Former mayor clears garbage after failing to get Corporation’s help

by

Shastri Boodan
1783 days ago
20200908
Former Mayor Dr Suruj Rambachan stands in front the growing pile of garbage at Bhim Street, Chaguanas.

Former Mayor Dr Suruj Rambachan stands in front the growing pile of garbage at Bhim Street, Chaguanas.

SHASTRI BOODAN

Fed up of wait­ing on the Ch­agua­nas Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion (CBC) to clean a pile of garbage at Bhim Street, for­mer May­or and MP Dr Su­ruj Ram­bachan start­ed mov­ing the smelly pile him­self.

On Sun­day, Ram­bachan and a team of work­ers he hired, start­ed load­ing bags of garbage and con­struc­tion rub­ble on to a truck for dis­pos­al. Ram­bachan said he was tired of hav­ing to deal with the CBC, who he said was giv­ing him a runaround.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia, Ram­bachan said a con­trac­tor dumped con­struc­tion rub­ble on the road­side two months ago. Since then the area has be­come a dump­ing ground for house­hold and com­mer­cial waste. The col­lec­tion of waste in Ch­agua­nas is al­so a prob­lem in oth­er com­mu­ni­ties.

A dis­grun­tled res­i­dent of Bal­moral Park, Ed­in­burgh 500, said the open tray ser­vice op­er­at­ed by the CBC was not pick­ing up waste in his com­mu­ni­ty. He said a pile of tree cut­tings have now be­come a dump heap for house­hold waste.

Suruj Rambachan, right, along with workers he hired move garbage from Bhim Street, Chaguanas on Sunday.

Suruj Rambachan, right, along with workers he hired move garbage from Bhim Street, Chaguanas on Sunday.

SHASTRI BOODAN

Ram­bachan said he was blanked on sev­er­al oc­ca­sions when he con­tact­ed May­or Faaiq Mo­hammed and the CEO of the CBC.

“The Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion has demon­strat­ed that it is an im­po­tent cor­po­ra­tion un­able to do a sim­ple task like clear­ing up this rub­bish. While the ver­min and rats con­tin­ue to cre­ate a health haz­ard here, they are hid­ing be­hind the lit­ter war­dens and they are hid­ing what they con­sid­er to be a le­gal process. The burgess­es are suf­fer­ing.”

Ram­bachan said, “When you put chil­dren to do a job this is what you got.” Di­nesh Ram­bal­ly, MP for Ch­agua­nas West (Ram­bachan’s area falls in Cou­va North) said the Ch­agua­nas Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion was slow to re­move garbage and the prob­lem was grow­ing. Ram­bal­ly said the CBC was tak­ing too long to re­move garbage when they cleared drains. He said de­bris left on the side of the road usu­al­ly ends back up in the drains.

When con­tact­ed, May­or Mo­hammed said the is­sue was be­ing han­dled by the lit­ter war­den. Mo­hammed said, “The CBC re­mains com­mit­ted to keep­ing our area clean and san­i­tary. We con­tin­ue to mon­i­tor the open tray ser­vice and reg­u­lar garbage dis­pos­al to en­sure that our Bor­ough is well kept.”


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored