Doubt over Cabo Star sabotage claim

CAROL MATROO

THERE is no sabotage on board the cargo ferry Cabo Star. Former chairman of the Inter-Island Transport Committee of the Tobago Chamber Dianne Hadad said she did not accept the Port Authority of TT’s (PATT) explanation for its toilet systems shutting down on Saturday. “I think it is a vacuum system,” Hadad told Newsday yesterday.

“I understand the holes in their bathroom system for the waste to go through are very small so I don’t know how many rocks people would have had to pass through. It sounds so comical. I say it is all kinds of stories being put together to make excuses for the malfunctioning of the boat.”

The PATT said there was tampering of the toilet system and rocks were found in the sewer system which caused the toilets to malfunction.

But Hadad was having none of that.

“I don’t know about the up keeping. My position is ... the latest thing you are hearing for everything that is not working is sabotage and it is a little bit much to believe because the school sewer systems in Trinidad, when they are clogged and not working, is clothes they find in it. I mean, how awful a people are we where school children are carrying clothes to flush down a toilet?

“We need to start to think. I am a director on a school board in Trinidad and there was a problem with the toilet system backing up. I asked when last was the sewer system cleaned because I know it is a maintenance thing that has to be done every year from July-August. We took it over three years now and did they keep it up? The answer might be no. I got somebody to come in and they moved three loads out. It had nothing to do with the system and anything clogging it.

She said there was a problem with maintenance in TT.

Hadad said she found it hard to believe that passengers were able to take on board, rocks the size the PATT claimed to have found.

“They are claiming it’s sabotage, but the fact of the matter is the poor people of Tobago are so desperate that using the old boat has become necessary. They don’t have a choice, so why now would they sabotage the one piece of equipment they have connecting them back and forth a little bit for the cargo?”

President of the Truckers’ Association Horace Amede said they have been experiencing numerous problems since the Cabo Star was brought in. He too was not buying into the sabotage story.

“At first they were claiming that the toilet paper that was being used was the wrong type. They got a softer toilet paper then the problem stopped. Then Thursday night the secretary said the toilets were not working and started back working 1-2 am. On Saturday I was on the vessel coming to Tobago. I used the washroom around 12.50 pm. I took a rest in the cabin and when I got up at 4.15 pm I used the washroom and it was not flushing. I punched the knob about seven times and I realised nothing was happening,” Amede said. He said when he went looking for the keys steward, she was putting “out of order” signs on the doors.