In a show of pa­tri­o­tism, res­i­dents of Palmiste were us­ing the In­de­pen­dence Day hol­i­day, yes­ter­day, to clean Palmiste Park, which has be­come over­grown since the sus­pen­sion of CEPEP, URP, and Re­for­esta­tion pro­grammes.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia be­fore the planned clean-up, pres­i­dent of the Palmiste Res­i­dents Ac­tion Group, Har­ry Ra­goo­nanan, said ten vol­un­teers have al­ready stepped for­ward with brush cut­ters and a trac­tor.

The group has al­so pooled funds from their neigh­bours to clear the park them­selves.

Ra­goo­nanan said over­grown grass, pol­lu­tion of the heart-shaped pond, and de­te­ri­o­rat­ing in­fra­struc­ture have left the park in dis­re­pair. The park, which spans about 37 hectares, is home to a va­ri­ety of trees, walk­ing trails, and the pond, which reg­u­lar­ly at­tracts fam­i­lies, wed­ding par­ties, and na­ture en­thu­si­asts.

How­ev­er, Ra­goo­nanan said that al­though the park falls un­der the ju­ris­dic­tion of the Min­istry of Agri­cul­ture and its Forestry Di­vi­sion, with sup­port from the Pe­nal/Debe Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion, well-in­tend­ed state agen­cies have al­lowed food out­lets lin­ing SS Erin Road to use the park. In­stead, he claimed, they pol­lut­ed it.

“When I was on the board a few years ago un­der the late Patrick Man­ning, no­body was al­lowed to park on the grass. We had a fence all around that was aban­doned and put in. And the park was kept in a pris­tine con­di­tion at that time. Since then, things have gone down­hill, and it’s now a free fall for every­body. So we’re try­ing to bring it back to what it used to be, that every­body could en­joy the park,” he said.

He not­ed that the food huts were sup­posed to have grease traps, but in­stead, he claimed some busi­ness­es ran pipes that dis­charged ef­flu­ent di­rect­ly in­to the pond.

Ra­goo­nanan said that sev­er­al months ago, res­i­dents or­gan­ised to dredge the pond, and stu­dents from sur­round­ing schools vol­un­teered to help main­tain the in­fra­struc­ture.

How­ev­er, with the halt in the Com­mu­ni­ty-Based En­vi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion and En­hance­ment Pro­gramme, the Un­em­ploy­ment Re­lief Pro­gramme, and the Na­tion­al Re­for­esta­tion and Wa­ter­shed Re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion Pro­gramme (NR­WRP), the park has fall­en in­to ne­glect.

“That’s why res­i­dents have de­cid­ed to cut the park our­selves,” Ra­goo­nanan ex­plained. “We’re col­lect­ing funds block by block, and Mon­day we plan a cut­ting ex­er­cise with a trac­tor and about ten men. It should take about three days.”

He not­ed that while clear­ing grass was a start, greater in­ter­ven­tion was need­ed to ad­dress pol­lu­tion from near­by busi­ness­es.

Mean­while, pres­i­dent of the Palmiste Ar­chae­o­log­i­cal and His­tor­i­cal So­ci­ety, Ter­rence Hon­ore, said the park re­quired struc­tur­al changes and in­vest­ment if it is to be pre­served.

“Vol­un­teerism is im­por­tant, but fenc­ing, polic­ing, and cor­po­rate sup­port are ur­gent­ly need­ed,” Hon­ore said. He es­ti­mat­ed that build­ing a perime­ter fence would cost about $150,000.

“That will stop peo­ple from park­ing in­side, but then we al­so have a park­ing prob­lem be­cause we have no des­ig­nat­ed space. On week­ends, we could have nine or ten wed­dings tak­ing place at the same time, with guests all look­ing for spots. We are try­ing to pro­vide pic­ture ar­eas with plants and flow­ers, but when we put them down, peo­ple re­move them.”

Hon­ore said the so­ci­ety had worked with scouts, school­child­ren, and youth groups to re­store fea­tures of the park. In re­cent years, about $50,000 to $60,000 was raised to re­vive the heart-shaped pond, which had gone for four years with­out wa­ter.

“This is a his­toric site. This is a tourist at­trac­tion. This is a place that every­body ap­pre­ci­ates, but there is a lack of com­mit­ment by the dif­fer­ent en­ti­ties,” he said.

Say­ing Palmiste Park had served as the on­ly ex­pan­sive pub­lic green space of its kind in South Trinidad, Hon­ore lament­ed that it had nev­er been for­mal­ly es­tab­lished as a na­tion­al park with per­ma­nent fa­cil­i­ties, se­cu­ri­ty, and en­force­ment of rules.

He added that ef­forts were on­go­ing to at­tract cor­po­rate spon­sors, from lo­cal drilling com­pa­nies to su­per­mar­kets, to con­tribute to bins, land­scap­ing, and events.

He said, “We are hop­ing that cor­po­rate en­ti­ties will step for­ward and save this park. It is not just about sit­ting back and wait­ing for the gov­ern­ment. Peo­ple need to step up and make a con­tri­bu­tion in a tan­gi­ble way.”

The chair­man of the Pe­nal/Debe Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion, Gow­tam Ma­haraj, said health in­spec­tors are ex­pect­ed to pro­vide writ­ten no­tice to food ven­dors to en­sure com­pli­ance with en­vi­ron­men­tal laws. He said the cor­po­ra­tion will take a col­lab­o­ra­tive ap­proach and as­sist res­i­dents in their clean-up.

Pres­i­dent of the Sus­tain­able Cli­mate Re­silience Ini­tia­tive, Ed­ward Mood­ie, who lives in Palmiste, added that restora­tion of the park was im­por­tant for com­mu­ni­ty health and well­ness.

“We start­ed to re­stock the park with fish and wa­ter lilies, and now we have got­ten do­na­tions from eight blocks. We are go­ing to start the process of cut­ting as much grass as pos­si­ble. If the grass is left over­grown, it will take months to recre­ate a lawn ef­fect. The next ini­tia­tive will be to in­vite users of the park to come with weed wack­ers and con­tin­ue the clean-up un­til the gov­ern­ment takes over,” Mood­ie said.