RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Works Min­is­ter Ro­han Sinanan says re­pairs have start­ed on some of the land­slips at the Pe­nal Rock Road which threat­en to dis­rupt con­nec­tiv­i­ty be­tween Pe­nal and Moru­ga.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, Sinanan said he was aware of the dif­fi­cul­ties res­i­dents and busi­ness own­ers have been fac­ing.

When shown pho­tographs of the road which caved fur­ther over the week­end, Sinanan re­spond­ed via What­sApp say­ing, “Yes we are work­ing on sev­er­al land­slips on that road.”

Own­er of Bevin’s En­ter­pris­es Ltd Sawmill, Bevin Lemo con­firmed that soil tests were be­ing done. He said there are sev­en ma­jor land­slips along the road, the worst of which is sit­u­at­ed near his sawmill. 

He said fol­low­ing ex­ten­sive rains over the week­end, the road has dropped fur­ther.

“The ma­te­ri­als which res­i­dents used to make tem­po­rary ac­cess, have been washed away,” Lemo said.

Say­ing he can no longer ac­cess his sawmill from Pe­nal, Lemo lament­ed, “Now if I have to get ma­te­ri­als from the sawmill, I have to go around to Moru­ga and then come back from the oth­er side to get there.”

A motorist approaches a landslip along the Penal Rock Road in Moruga.

COURTESY BEVIN LEMO

He ex­plained, “My cus­tomers can­not come to get ma­te­ri­als and I have been forced to shut down the op­er­a­tions and send home work­ers be­cause of these land­slips,” he said.

Lemo said over the week­end teams from the Pro­gramme Up­grade for Road Ef­fi­cien­cy (PURE) Unit came to the area to do soil tests.

“We were told that tests are be­ing done and soon they will try to do re­pairs,” Lemo said. But while he was thank­ful for this, Lemo ex­pressed hope that the land­slip at the 14mm is fixed as a pri­or­i­ty.

He said the San­ta Maria RC School is af­fect­ed by these land­slips as stu­dents have to use al­ter­na­tive ac­cess routes to get to school.

Ce­lesti­na Myler, who owns the vil­lage par­lour, said her busi­ness may al­so close short­ly un­less the road is fixed.

“We are not get­ting sales be­cause peo­ple can­not come in here. The de­liv­ery trucks say they not com­ing ei­ther be­cause their ve­hi­cle near­ly cap­sized on the road. My daugh­ter goes out of the vil­lage to get one or two things for the par­lour but she can­not do this of­ten,” Myler said.

Farmer Paschal Bal­ba­so said some farm­ers can­not get to their gar­dens be­cause of the road con­di­tions.