If ever there was a case of the old rolling in­to the new it was what oc­curred on the Beetham High­way, the main thor­ough­fare lead­ing in­to Port-of-Spain yes­ter­day, when res­i­dents staged a fiery protest demon­stra­tion on both sides of the high­way to protest a sewage prob­lem in the area.

Res­i­dents lament that raw sewage has been flow­ing in the road be­cause of bro­ken in­fra­struc­ture in the area, which pos­es a se­ri­ous health haz­ard.

Res­i­dents blocked the east and west­bound lanes of the Beetham High­way, as well as the Pri­or­i­ty Bus Route ear­ly yes­ter­day morn­ing caus­ing grid­lock traf­fic for peo­ple head­ing in­to Port-of-Spain.

Po­lice of­fi­cers were forced to di­vert traf­fic at the Civil­ian Con­ser­va­tion Corps com­pound on­to the Pri­or­i­ty Bus Route and then on­to the East­ern Main Road, while the de­bris was cleared by of­fi­cers from the Fire Ser­vice, as well as the Po­lice Ser­vice.

Res­i­dents lament­ed their de­ci­sion to protest was the last re­sort af­ter sev­er­al ap­peals to their Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Laven­tille West and Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Fitzger­ald Hinds since Oc­to­ber 2021, ask­ing him to have the sit­u­a­tion rec­ti­fied, fell on deaf ears and noth­ing was done to al­le­vi­ate the prob­lem.

It is the very same Min­is­ter Hinds who in au­gust 2018 felt the wrath of the Beetham res­i­dents who soaked him with wa­ter when he vis­it­ed the area in an im­promp­tu walk­a­bout, in the face of a wa­ter prob­lem in the area.

Yes­ter­day an­gry res­i­dents threat­ened to car­ry out “a cit­i­zens’ ar­rest” of their MP as well as the Prime Min­is­ter, in or­der to get their sewage prob­lem solved.

It is dif­fi­cult to un­der­stand how a raw sewage prob­lem could be af­fect­ing a com­mu­ni­ty for more than three months and nei­ther WASA nor the sit­ting MP seems to un­der­stand the ur­gency of the health is­sues float­ing around, es­pe­cial­ly in the face of a virus plagu­ing this land re­sult­ing in over three thou­sand deaths.

Just what is the job of an MP? Is it just to meet with con­stituents at elec­tion time? Or do they have of­fice days when they can meet with res­i­dents, hear their con­cerns and seek to ad­dress them? If that is the case then how come the Min­is­ter was un­aware that a raw sewage prob­lem is af­fect­ing his con­stituents?

It is al­so dif­fi­cult to un­der­stand how come Port-of-Spain South MP Stu­art Young, who sits in the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter was un­aware that some of his con­stituents on Mt Holo­lo had been ex­pe­ri­enc­ing wa­ter prob­lems to the point where they staged a protest on Sun­day to high­light their con­cerns.

It can’t be that rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the peo­ple be­gins and ends with an elec­tion.

The Prime Min­is­ter and po­lit­i­cal leader of the PNM Dr Kei­th Row­ley must lis­ten to the cries of the peo­ple, who in­ci­den­tal­ly come from con­stituen­cies long held by the PNM be­cause these protests show a clear lack of rep­re­sen­ta­tion that should not be con­doned.

This must be a wake-up call for all MPs.

It does not mat­ter which side of the po­lit­i­cal di­vide you stand on, peo­ple, re­al peo­ple, vot­ed for you, they have re­al prob­lems and things should not be al­lowed to reach such a lev­el of frus­tra­tion that they feel the on­ly way for any­one to hear them or to ad­dress their con­cerns is to protest.

We un­der­stand that when you hold Min­is­te­r­i­al port­fo­lios that the rigours of the job can take you away from reg­u­lar­ly see­ing the peo­ple who vot­ed for you. But if that’s the case then where are the Coun­cil­lors who should be the eyes and ears on the ground alert­ing the MPs to what is hap­pen­ing.

Protests are not the so­lu­tion, even though some­times it is the on­ly way to bring at­ten­tion to the plight of dis­tressed cit­i­zens. The re­al so­lu­tion lies with bet­ter rep­re­sen­ta­tion at all lev­els.