Rad­hi­ca De Sil­va

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

An oil spill forced the evac­u­a­tion of one fam­i­ly in Fyz­abad, but Her­itage Pe­tro­le­um’s swift re­sponse pre­vent­ed the oil from spread­ing to the Av­o­cat Riv­er. As a pre­cau­tion, the af­fect­ed fam­i­ly was re­lo­cat­ed to the Paria Suites Ho­tel in La Ro­main while cleanup op­er­a­tions took place.

When Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed the scene, mop-up crews were on site shov­el­ling sand on clumps of crude near Siparia Road, Av­o­cat Vil­lage.

Res­i­dent Vi­nesh Ma­hadeo said his wife Fer­oza Mo­hammed dis­cov­ered oil in their yard around mid­morn­ing on Thurs­day and im­me­di­ate­ly con­tact­ed Her­itage Pe­tro­le­um.

“They came very fast,” Ma­hadeo said. “They did their sur­vey and dealt with it quick. I had to leave my home, and they said they will send us to spend a few nights at Paria," he ex­plained.

Ma­hadeo, whose fam­i­ly has lived in the area for more than 40 years, said Her­itage Pe­tro­le­um’s team con­tained the spill be­fore it reached near­by wa­ter­ways. He added that the com­pa­ny has promised to re­store the prop­er­ty once cleanup is com­plete.

He ex­pressed con­cerns that the old oil line near his home had de­vel­oped a leak. Ma­hadeo sug­gest­ed that re­lo­cat­ing the pipeline, rather than res­i­dents, might be a safer long-term so­lu­tion.

Mean­while, in a sep­a­rate in­ci­dent, an oil spill was al­so re­port­ed at Fullar­ton Vil­lage, Ce­dros, where fish­er­folk have raised con­cerns about pos­si­ble ef­fects on coastal wa­ters and fish­ing grounds. Her­itage Pe­tro­le­um has al­ready start­ed clean­ing up that spill.

Guardian Me­dia has reached out to En­er­gy Min­is­ter Dr Roodal Mooni­lal and we are await­ing a re­sponse.