By Sue-Ann Wayow
TWO water lines belonging to the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) are the reason for the delay in road rehabilitation works in Chatham.
Local government councillor for Cedros Shankar Teelucksingh told AZP News on Tuesday that there were two lines – a 16-inch main and an eight-inch line to be relocated from the area where a major landslide occurred last week.
The 16-inch line is a direct water line to the Chatham water treatment plant and the eight-inch line is a domestic distribution line to parts of Chatham, Teelucksingh said.
He said his information was from the Ministry of Works and Transport Programme for Upgrading Roads Efficiency (PURE) is that the lines need to be relocated before any further works could be done.
This was confirmed by Minister of Public Utilities Marvin Gonzales who told AZP News that PURE and WASA have been collaborating on the matter.
“They (the lines) have to be relocated and that is being arranged,” he said.
Teelucksingh said the affected residents were awaiting on Tuesday for feedback from the relevant authorities.
Since last week Thursday, transportation of goods from larger vehicles was impossible following the landslide along the Southern Main Road at the 96-kilometre mark.
National Petroleum (NP) that operates three gas stations, two in Bonasse and one in Icacos have stopped their fuel trucks from venturing into the area.
Larger trucks supplying LPG cooking gas have also ceased distribution and the Public Transport Service Corporation (PTSC) stopped using their larger buses and instead was utilising a smaller bus to transport passengers Teelucksingh said.
Larger construction vehicles have also ceased to pass the landslide which has affected almost 8,000 residents.
President of the Icacos Fishing Association Esook Ali said he has to drive to Point Fortin or Erin which was about an hour drive to get fuel for his boat.
He said many others like him were affected as Icacos was a major fishing area and about 400 boats operate at that end.
Ali said, “The road to repair is not that difficult. It seems as though nobody knows what they are doing. We pass on that road all the time and we could give the engineers suggestions as to how the road could be fixed. They can consult and meet with us to have discussions because while they deciding what to do, we the people are suffering from it.”
Teelucksingh said apart from the transportation of goods and services, the residents who would have benefitted from beach goers on weekends, also lost business opportunities.
He said the police officers were attending to the residents’ plight and as they were concerned about their personal safety.
