KEVON FELMINE

Se­nior Re­porter

kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt

While many have wel­comed the Gov­ern­ment’s Re­vi­tal­i­sa­tion Blue­print, an am­bi­tious plan to trans­form T&T’s eco­nom­ic and in­fra­struc­tur­al land­scape, res­i­dents tucked away along King’s Wharf, San Fer­nan­do, are won­der­ing what’s re­al­ly in it for them. Many hope that Gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials will meet with the rough­ly 100 res­i­dents face-to-face to ex­plain the project and hear their con­cerns.

As part of the Re­vi­tal­i­sa­tion Blue­print launched at the Diplo­mat­ic Cen­tre last Thurs­day, the Gov­ern­ment pro­pos­es to trans­form San Fer­nan­do’s wa­ter­front in­to a coastal city. The plan in­cludes re­tail spaces at Plaza San Car­los, a new wa­ter­front ho­tel and con­ven­tion cen­tre, ocean­front res­i­dences, and a mod­ern trans­port hub.

But when Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed Old Train Line Road, res­i­dents of the strug­gling sea­side com­mu­ni­ty said they hadn’t even heard about the new plans to turn their coast­line in­to a fu­tur­is­tic hub.

One moth­er ex­plained, “We don’t have any elec­tric­i­ty, so news we don’t re­al­ly watch it as much.”

An­oth­er res­i­dent, An­na Lee, added, “It is just what flash­es across so­cial me­dia; we might get one or two (news), but to be hon­est, since the project, we do not know what is go­ing on or what is go­ing to be go­ing on.”

Af­ter learn­ing about the plan, Lee said she sup­port­ed it, but on­ly if it ben­e­fits every­one.

“To be hon­est, the plan would ben­e­fit out­siders. What about the peo­ple on the Wharf who were here from the foun­da­tion? There is noth­ing in place for them.”

If the new wa­ter­front project goes ahead, res­i­dents want homes they can af­ford and feel com­fort­able liv­ing in. Af­ter the re­cent land recla­ma­tion, Lee said, swarms of sand­flies now fill the area every evening, mak­ing life un­bear­able. She be­lieves jobs should al­so be pro­vid­ed for those in the com­mu­ni­ty.

Lee ex­plained that fish­ing is their liveli­hood. She earns her in­come at the 101-year-old San Fer­nan­do Fish Mar­ket, and mov­ing would take that away. It’s al­ready tough, she said, as the old mar­ket is in a di­lap­i­dat­ed state, leav­ing some ven­dors dis­placed.

Fish­er­man Alexan­der Gibbs, who has worked in the in­dus­try for 46 years, on­ly learned about the re­vi­tal­i­sa­tion plan yes­ter­day. He said res­i­dents will not stand in the way of progress, but they should al­so ben­e­fit from it.

“Progress is a must, but we are hu­man be­ings, we live here. Treat us like we are some­body. We are not stand­ing in front of progress. We are ready to move out of here. It is the way they want to come and han­dle it. It is wrong,” Gibbs said.

He said the land recla­ma­tion has cre­at­ed the dust prob­lem, so he has no is­sue with mov­ing. Like Lee, he be­lieves the project should pro­vide res­i­dents with new homes and jobs.

An­oth­er fish­er­man, Kevin Ma­han­g­oo, said the for­mer ad­min­is­tra­tion had al­ready start­ed re­lo­cat­ing peo­ple from the Wharf as part of its own re­de­vel­op­ment plans. He be­lieves the cur­rent Gov­ern­ment should pro­vide prop­er hous­ing for those still liv­ing there if it con­tin­ues the project. He ex­plained that fish­er­men live where they fish, and while some res­i­dents were re­lo­cat­ed in the past, oth­ers were not.

In re­cent years, the wa­ter­front has seen some de­vel­op­ment with the par­tial ex­pan­sion of La­dy Hailes Av­enue, the con­struc­tion of a U-Park, and the San Fer­nan­do Fish­ing Cen­tre.

San Fer­nan­do West MP Dr Michael Dowlath, when con­tact­ed yes­ter­day, as­sured the res­i­dents that the Gov­ern­ment will con­sult them, out­lin­ing the plans for their area specif­i­cal­ly and well in ad­vance of any de­vel­op­ment works.