Sascha Wil­son

Se­nior Re­porter

sascha.wil­son@guardian.co.tt

For the sec­ond time in sev­en months, raw sewage is flow­ing from a man­hole in the Sunkist De­vel­op­ment in Philip­pine.

Res­i­dents com­plained that since last week they have been try­ing to get the Pe­nal/Debe Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion and the Wa­ter and Sew­er­age Au­thor­i­ty (WASA) to fix the prob­lem as it pos­es a dan­ger to their health.

They said the last time they had the sew­er prob­lem, the then Cor­po­ra­tion chair­man said they did not have spe­cialised equip­ment, while WASA in­di­cat­ed that the area is a pri­vate de­vel­op­ment and the sew­er sys­tem is not their re­spon­si­bil­i­ty.

One of the af­fect­ed res­i­dents, Rose­marie Boodoo, said the stench is un­bear­able and the sewage is flow­ing on­to the road and in­to drains.

“The stench is per­me­at­ing through­out the neigh­bour­hood. It is a hor­ri­ble scent and it is af­fect­ing us with­in our homes. It is caus­ing peo­ple to feel ill … . When we cook­ing, it is caus­ing flies to come in­to our kitchen,” she said

Boodoo ap­pealed for ur­gent in­ter­ven­tion from the au­thor­i­ties, not­ing that there are sev­er­al chil­dren and el­der­ly peo­ple in the com­mu­ni­ty.

“It is very wor­ry­ing and it is of great con­cern to all of us,” she said.

An­oth­er res­i­dent, Franklyn Ish­mael, said: “When the cars dri­ve on the road, it (the sewage) ends up on your tires and then in your garages.”

Dex­ter Daniel, said he is se­vere­ly af­fect­ed be­cause the leak is close to his home.

“I re­al­ly think it is un­sat­is­fac­to­ry, and it is un­ac­cept­able that every time we have a leak, we have to go and call the me­dia,” he com­plained.

Daniel said WASA has the spe­cialised equip­ment re­pair the sew­er meal and he ap­pealed to them to find a per­ma­nent so­lu­tion or work out a main­te­nance pro­gramme to pre­vent a re­cur­rence.

WASA’s Cor­po­ra­tion Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Man­ag­er Daniel Plen­ty re­it­er­at­ed that the sew­er sys­tem is not un­der the Au­thor­i­ty’s con­trol.

How­ev­er, he said Op­er­a­tions per­son­nel are look­ing in­to the mat­ter.