The Mandingo Road in Princes Town has been closed due to a landslip. Commuters will now have to find alternative routes which will take a longer time, on even more deplorable roadways.
The landslip has destroyed two houses already, but the area’s MP says they will move to not only restore access very soon, but try to save a third house on the brink of collapse.
Our reporter Cindy Raghubar-Teekersingh was in Princes Town today and gives us a look.
00:00For close to three years, Mandingo Road, Princes Town residents have complained about the danger of this landslip.
00:08On Saturday, due to its recent rapid deterioration, the Ministry of Works decided to close it to vehicular traffic.
00:15The hard work is to do it in some time to come, right? Because it will keep moving, moving, and vehicle can't pass.
00:22So it's better you block it and somebody get down in it, right?
00:26We're glad for the road to fix, maybe as quick as possible, right?
00:32And it's the whole public, we'll have to use it, you know?
00:36It's not just the villagers here, everybody.
00:39Because it's come like a main road now, a lot of vehicles from Old Moruga will be passing here, Barakpur.
00:44But while it is an inconvenience to many drivers, the greater issue here is the growing possibility that the landslip will claim its third house.
00:53Farzan Mohammed has lived here all of his life, and to lose everything he has worked to build and invest in for decades, like his neighbours, could be a reality very soon.
01:16My neighbour's house is going down here, my mum's house was here, this one was also going down and all too.
01:21Right now she's renting.
01:24You know, my neighbour's also renting and all too.
01:26I put up some pool here to try to save that and everything went down.
01:30I just thought you said I'd come and fix this cave land and try to save that night home here I go.
01:34Because right now in the very rainfall, I can't sleep any night with it there.
01:37Visiting the site shortly after it was officially closed, Moruga Tableland MP Michelle Benjamin says the Ministry of Works has given a time frame of one to two weeks for work to begin here.
01:50The MP says, however, having lost 35 homes, many of them large structures due to landslips in her constituency alone,
01:59it will be a focus of this government to do what they can to also help home owners.
02:05She says the last government failed to help save people's houses, but that will not be the way they approach these things.
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