RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Four hous­es have tum­bled in­to a gap­ing precipice at Whar­well Road, Table­land, and, as heavy rains con­tin­ue, fur­ther slip­page is oc­cur­ring, putting two more hous­es in grave dan­ger.

Frus­trat­ed with a lack of re­sponse by the au­thor­i­ties, res­i­dents pooled $17,000 last month and did re­ha­bil­i­ta­tive work them­selves, al­low­ing nar­row ac­cess along the col­lapsed road.

But, this has not been enough as the May show­ers have caused deep cracks along the pas­sage­way.

When CNC3 News vis­it­ed the com­mu­ni­ty on Wednes­day morn­ing, res­i­dents were in dis­tress.

Rus­sell Lookhoor whose home is lean­ing pre­car­i­ous­ly re­fused to come out­side.

"We protest­ed sev­er­al times this year and they did noth­ing to the road. Peo­ple don't have much hope," his neigh­bour Rekha Har­ba­jan ex­plained.

Her home, a two-sto­ry con­crete struc­ture has al­so start­ed to crack.

How­ev­er, the el­der­ly peo­ple in the com­mu­ni­ty said they were wor­ried about the lack of ac­cess.

De­vak­i­nan­dan Seep­aul, 75, added: " I'm sick­ly and I am wor­ried that if some­thing hap­pens to me in­side here, no am­bu­lance can come in."

An­oth­er res­i­dent Hym­raj Sookoo said pine farm­ers were al­so find­ing it dif­fi­cult to get pro­duce out.

Of­fi­cials of the Min­istry of Works vis­it­ed the land­slip last week and took mea­sure­ments. The res­i­dents are call­ing on the Works Min­is­ter Ro­han Sinanan to as­sist them be­fore they lose more prop­er­ties.