RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

While garbage col­lec­tion has shown signs of im­prove­ment in parts of Corinth and Union Hall in south Trinidad, res­i­dents say the ne­glect­ed state of Palmiste Park and sur­round­ing ar­eas con­tin­ue to pose se­ri­ous safe­ty and health con­cerns.

Res­i­dents com­plained that over­grown bush­es and acres of un­main­tained land at the park have cre­at­ed con­di­tions that at­tract ver­min and crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty.

Usha Ra­moutar-Sookoo, a ven­dor at the park, said there have been more than five rob­beries in and around Palmiste Park in re­cent times.

She said the tall grass and thick bush­es have dis­cour­aged many peo­ple from us­ing the park for ex­er­cise and recre­ation.

She not­ed that Palmiste Park is typ­i­cal­ly heav­i­ly used in the lead-up to Car­ni­val, but the cur­rent con­di­tions have kept peo­ple away.

“The bush­es are too tall, and peo­ple don’t feel safe,” she said, adding that the state of the park has sig­nif­i­cant­ly re­duced foot traf­fic and com­mu­ni­ty use.

Mean­while, co­conut ven­dor Av­ery Ho­sein echoed those con­cerns, say­ing the park has de­te­ri­o­rat­ed bad­ly over time.

“The park grow in­to a jun­gle. Be­fore, peo­ple used to pic­nic, but now peo­ple don’t feel safe to walk here be­cause of how tall the grass has grown,” Ho­sein said.

He added that re­cent rob­beries have left res­i­dents fear­ful.

How­ev­er, the chair­man of the Pe­nal/Debe Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion, Gow­tam Ma­haraj, said work has al­ready be­gun to ad­dress the sit­u­a­tion.

He said grass-cut­ting at Palmiste Park start­ed about two weeks ago and is be­ing car­ried out in phas­es.

“The ar­eas that are most used, near the Chil­dren’s Park, have al­ready been cleared,” Ma­haraj said, adding that teams are cur­rent­ly work­ing at sev­er­al lo­ca­tions and will ex­pand to oth­er pub­lic spaces and com­mu­ni­ty cen­tres where the need ex­ists.

When Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed, some ar­eas along Palmiste Boule­vard had been cut.

Ma­haraj ex­plained that un­der the Na­tion­al Pro­gramme for the Up­keep of Pub­lic Spaces, the PDRC has the flex­i­bil­i­ty to de­ploy work­ers where they are most need­ed.

Ad­dress­ing garbage con­cerns in Union Hall, Ma­haraj said the cor­po­ra­tion is col­lab­o­rat­ing with the Sol­id Waste Man­age­ment Com­pa­ny Ltd (SWM­COL) and oth­er stake­hold­ers to clar­i­fy re­spon­si­bil­i­ties and pre­vent health risks to res­i­dents.

He al­so high­light­ed the on­go­ing is­sue of in­dis­crim­i­nate dump­ing, which he de­scribed as per­sis­tent.

Ma­haraj said the cor­po­ra­tion has ap­proved the pur­chase of re­mote cam­eras to mon­i­tor il­le­gal dump­ing, in­clud­ing do­mes­tic, se­mi-com­mer­cial waste and co­conut shells.

He said plans are al­so un­der­way to strength­en en­force­ment through ex­pand­ed health sur­veil­lance in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the rel­e­vant min­istry.

Mean­while, San Fer­nan­do East MP Bri­an Man­ning said san­i­ta­tion is­sues in parts of his con­stituen­cy have reached what he de­scribed as “cri­sis pro­por­tions.”

Man­ning said his of­fice con­tin­ues to re­ceive com­plaints from res­i­dents about un­san­i­tary con­di­tions, in­clud­ing in­ad­e­quate grass cut­ting and garbage col­lec­tion in Corinth and Union Hall.

He ex­plained that re­peat­ed ef­forts to en­gage the rel­e­vant au­thor­i­ties have not yet yield­ed mean­ing­ful re­sults.

“We have reached out many times to both the HDC and the re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tions — the Princes Town Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion for Corinth and the Pe­nal/Debe Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion for the Union Hall area — and not much seems to be hap­pen­ing at this point in time,” he said.

Man­ning said res­i­dents are be­ing forced to live with poor con­di­tions but pledged to con­tin­ue ad­vo­cat­ing on their be­half.

How­ev­er, when Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed Corinth and Union Hall, there was no vis­i­ble garbage pile­up.

Res­i­dents in Corinth re­port­ed that garbage trucks pass through about three times per week, while Union Hall res­i­dents said col­lec­tion oc­curs once or twice week­ly.

Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter Khadi­jah Ameen was al­so con­tact­ed for a com­ment, but did not re­spond up to the time of pub­li­ca­tion.