Poor drainage caused Laventille landslide

POOR DRAINAGE on Upper Wharton Street, Laventille may have caused a landslide on Tuesday night on nearby Wharton Street Extension, making parts of that road impassable.

Pictures of the road giving way under a grey Nissan Wingroad began circulating on social media.

Newsday found out the road and the earth beneath it collapsed at about 11.30 pm on Tuesday.

Residents said the landslide caused a wall which stood on the edge of the road to fall onto an abandoned house which burned down years ago. It also led to a WASA pipeline bursting, cutting off the water supply to several residents on the street.

“First I heard the water trickling, then I heard pebbles falling,” said one resident who lived across the street from the landslide. “Then I started to hear more pebbles falling and water trickling. I started thinking to myself, boy, this wall is not going to last.”

Patrick Rennie, the owner of the Wingroad, told Newsday he had driven along the road hours before, only to be caught in the landslide later.

“I was driving, coming from work, then I felt the car shift. So I got out of the car,” he said.

Rennie said when he saw what was happening he called to the neighbours for help. For hours they tried to help move him the car. He eventually managed to move it yesterday morning.

Some residents said they had noticed problems with the drainage since last year, but one resident said the problems existed long before.

“They clogged up the drain so water can’t get to go, so now it has to find a way to pass. That was when the road started to collapse.”

The road is considered a major road in Laventille and heavy vehicles use it. Residents said the combination of the weight of such vehicles and the water undermining the road water led to the landslide.

When Newsday arrived, WASA workers were repairing the pipeline in an attempt to restore the water supply.