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  • 11 months ago
Three families along Sahadath Road in Princes Town are pleading with WASA to compensate them for their houses which have all been destroyed by landslips.

The families believe leaking water lines belonging to the state-utility led to the waterlogging of the soil under their homes, which ultimately caused them to crumble .

Reporter Cindy Raghubar-Teekersingh met with the displaced families and brings us their story.
Transcript
00:00Losing a home to a landslip is a nightmare Taradat Brijmohan and his family have lived
00:06through not once, not twice, but three times.
00:11In 2020, their three-storey concrete home collapsed, forcing them next door into his
00:16brother's home.
00:17A year later, that home also tumbled.
00:22Both brothers and their families moved across the road to their parents' home, where another
00:27sibling and his wife lived.
00:29But over the last two weeks, that home, too, has dramatically shifted and cracked, forcing
00:35them all to evacuate.
00:37Sometimes when you hear a person commit suicide or something in a village or a community,
00:43a lot will be going through your mind.
00:45What this person do, and the person's wife was unfaithful, and all kind of things.
00:52But this kind of situation, we moved from one house to the other house, my younger brother's
00:56house.
00:57That house went down.
00:58My older brother, my elder brother, my mom and dad also live here.
01:02They gave us a little shelter here.
01:03And now this house, it is not good.
01:06It's a life Taradat says no one should ever have to experience.
01:10He says their home, which fell in 2020, took over 15 years of sacrifice and savings to
01:17build and was lost after living in it for just four years.
01:21His wife, he says, has stood by him in strong support.
01:25But he admits it has not been easy.
01:56Taradat and his brothers believe leaking water pipelines led, over time, to the undermining
02:15and destruction of their properties, and want the Water and Sewage Authority to take responsibility
02:21for what has been happening.
02:23They say reports to the authority led to side visits, even a line repair.
02:28But they've been told torrential rainfall is to blame.
02:31This wasa line, we make report, right?
02:35They wanted to see solid evidence.
02:37They wanted to see water coming up.
02:38They wanted to see the leak, right?
02:40We have that in video.
02:42We have everything.
02:43And, you know, I think somebody, wasa mainly, you know, we should be compensated for that.
02:52To date, none of the brothers has been able to get any real help, and they are now prepared
02:57to take the matter to court if necessary.
03:00For Taradat, a retired Defence Force staff sergeant, he sees this as the state failing
03:06him after giving more than a quarter-century of his life in service.
03:11What keeps him going, he says, is his wife and three children, and the words of his young
03:17daughter.
03:18Every day she mentions, Daddy, when you rebuild the house, I want my own room.
03:31She gives the colour of the room, and I hope, I hope, I hope that maybe, in the near future,
03:41I can give it her.
03:43Cindy Raguba Tikasing, TV6 News.
03:48For more UN videos visit www.un.org
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