radhica.sookraj@guardian.co.tt
Three months after her neighbour’s home collapsed, Leslie-Ann Clifford and her family escaped death when the back of her home collapsed following heavy rains.
Leslie-Ann Clifford, of 238 Lengua Village, Barrackpore, said she was standing in her living room when the house started to shake.
“We heard a loud noise with some cracking and by the time I looked, there was no kitchen, no washroom, everything was out of sight. It plummeted down into the ground,” she recalled.
Clifford said the heavy rains had been causing them distress.
“Every time the rain falls there is slippage. The land is eroding every day and it slipping rapidly,” Clifford told Guardian Media.
She explained that several reports had been made in the past but no help was forthcoming.
“Right now, six people are displaced. I don’t know where we will go from here. I asked my daughter to stay by her tonight. All of us are separated now,” she said.
Clifford said two other houses near her were also slipping.
In May, the entire house belonging to her neighbour tumbled.
Evidence of the ruin was still visible when Guardian Media visited the scene.
Clifford said it was only a matter of time before her home also collapses completely.
Another resident, Philbert Cayenne, said the road started to cave in two years ago.
He said: “I saw the MP for the area once and the councillor once. The road cut away in half and the house fell down next door. Right through the back, the road is sinking.”
Cayenne lives downstairs in his house and five tenants live upstairs.
“It is a bad situation because the drainage is bad. It seeping underneath and the water flowing right through there,” he added.
Resident Phenola Bachan said she too was worried about her home.
Even after doing extensive work costing over $300,000, Bachan said her home was still in danger.
“The road collapsed in January. It affected me badly because the entire house is sinking. I augered about 21 feet to the side and I did a retaining wall at 31 feet and it still continues. I also did new fencing and it just breaking down now,” Bachan said.
Meanwhile, Bronte councillor Brian Julian said there were four landslips along Papourie Road.
“We were able to make representation to have one fixed but there is still slippage. We want the Ministry of Works to help us. There are plenty of cave lands in this area and they are affecting people’s homes, we need help,” Julien said.
Meanwhile, Works Minister Rohan Sinanan said yesterday that heavy rains had exacerbated many landslips.
He revealed that areas like Moruga, Princes Town, Barrackpore and parts of the Naparima/Mayaro Road are prone to landslips because of the soil type. Sinanan said the ministry is dealing with multiple landslips but because of heavy rainfall since June, over 64 more landslips have cropped up in Moruga alone.
