00:00When I first came down here, the river, that river was like a drain. You could have just
00:06stepped over it. But now, look at the width of it right now. Because the amount of water
00:13that's come down in that river, you wouldn't like to see it.
00:19This is the Diggle Martin River in the vicinity of Queen's Drive, Bagatelle. Roughly 20 houses
00:25line this part of the river on either side, and each one of the residents has the same
00:31fear.
00:32Our fear is that if water should come heavy for a long duration, the water undermining
00:42the land, and we're fearful because it comes kind of close now. It undermines it from underneath.
00:48So at a time, it will drop down because we have nothing holding it. As you say, we had
00:52bamboo and things, but it's not there again. So we have nothing holding up the wall, so
00:56we are fearful that if rain should fall for a week, like how it did fall, we're in some
01:02problems.
01:03The residents tell TV6 that about six months ago, the Diggle Martin Borough Corporation
01:08constructed a wall along one part of the river in the vicinity of a bridge. They were hopeful
01:14that work would continue, but to date, nothing more has been done.
01:19They came and did some work by the bridge, but they just put a... I can't remember how
01:24long it is, but what happened, as they put it there, they make it smaller than the river.
01:28So when the water contain and it coming out, it goes smaller. When it come out, it's spreading
01:32out.
01:33What we are fearful from, we carry pictures to the corporation already. We went and we
01:38checked them, and they saw it and thing, and they say, well, all right, they will come.
01:42They come and they survey it and thing, and then they came and dredge it. Well, when they
01:45dredge it, we say, well, they go in and build. But when we realized that it's just building
01:50a little bit past the bridge, we realized we had problems.
01:53The residents say over the years, efforts to remedy the situation themselves proved
01:58futile given the scope of the work. And for this reason, the Ministry of Works was also
02:04engaged.
02:05Last year, when they came, I went down in the river with them, and they picketed every
02:10place, and they said that they have to do the river. But since that, we never see them
02:15come back.
02:16The residents are asking for the situation to be addressed as soon as possible. As they
02:21note, the river in itself is also a hazard.
02:25You all ever get flooded here or in danger of being flooded?
02:28Yes, when they didn't put a wall, water was coming in. And if you see how this thing was
02:34going down, and it's real water, the water which are high that if anybody go in there,
02:38they get drunk.
02:39In fact, somebody drunk in there.
02:41When they drunk up, somebody came there, but he came straight down here and washed away.
02:47TV6 News has contacted both the Diggle Martin Borough Corporation and the Ministry of Works
02:52on the matter. Renassa Cutting, TV6 News.
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