Excessive dust from an on-going landslip repair project has been severely affecting residents of Tableland for the past six months.
They claim the contractor has failed to listen to their many calls to wet the construction site, and are now publicly pleading with the Minister of Works to intervene on their behalf.
The residents tell our reporter Cindy Raghubar-Teekersingh, shovels of dust are removed from their homes daily and the health of babies, children and the elderly are continuously at risk.
00:00Six months ago, when work began to fix this landslip in Robert Village Tableland along the main route connecting Princess Town to Rio Claro, residents were happy.
00:11But soon afterwards, thick plumes of dust began sweeping over their homes, affecting every aspect of their lives.
00:19Most of the times you have to keep inside, indoors. You can't come out outside because of the dust. It's a lot of coughing and wheezing. We have a lot of kids and things.
00:29The problem is that the dust is overbearing. We feel like we reach a boiling point that we can't take it no more.
00:37All we are asking is that we keep wetting the road and to keep down the dust. My property right now is in a state of, well, terrible state.
00:47Within an hour of sweeping, air blowing, mopping and power washing, heavy dust re-accumulates.
00:53One homeowner has tried to shield his home using plastic.
00:57However, they tell TV6 multiple requests that a contractor and Ministry of Works officials over the past few months have yielded no reaction and so no relief.
01:10We know it's a project, but also we are trying to bear with it, but it's getting unbearable. It's taken too long.
01:16Businesses have been impacted as well. Heavy dust, they say, has damaged key equipment and acted as a deterrent to potential patrons of the next door bar.
01:26They are only putting gravel on the road and there's lots of dust. I have a business right next door here.
01:31The alignment section deals with computers and I've changed two computers already since the project started.
01:39There's dust, excessive amount of dust inside our work area there.
01:45Living at the heart of the project, Harilal Rambajan tells of the inconvenience faced by his family and his concern for his young grandchildren, which include a baby.
01:56Yeah, well, this dust here is maybe three, four times worse than the Sahara dust.
02:02Because when these big truck and them pass, so the heavy floor traffic, you know, doctor, you can't see nothing, you know, there's only the whole area that's covered with dust, you know.
02:08Your boy is changing, you're eating the dust, you sleep when you go, when you go to, on your bed in the night, you have to change your sheet every day, you have to change your sheet.
02:19Inside your house, you have to mop and clean every day. It's unbearable, you know. It's real unbearable.
02:25We're asking the ministry, Ms. Jolene John, to intervene on this and see that they put something on this road to keep her with the dust.
02:31We contacted the Ministry of Works on the issues raised by Tableland residents and were told they will be looking into the matter and provide an update soon.
Be the first to comment