Baptist leader wants Castara drain fixed

A Spiritual Baptist elder is pleading with the THA’s Division of Infrastructure, Quarries and the Environment to fix an unfinished concrete drain in Castara.

Bishop Innis Edwards, 73, leader of the Old School of the Nazarene Spiritual Baptist Church, said the drain, which is filled with silt and other debris, overflows during heavy rainfall, causing distress to residents.

Edwards said the covered drain, which begins at the Castara Main Road and runs along Depot Road, has also been used as a walkway by residents over the years. But he said the structure has never been completed.

“It is about 14 years now I have been trying in vain to get the drain fixed. (It) has been preventing us from going to church when the rain falls,” Edwards told Newsday in a recent interview.

“The canal is clogged and because of the clogging of the canal, when the rain falls, the canal flows on the road.”

Edwards, who established the church in 1993, said he usually has service twice a week, Wednesdays and Sundays.

“But when the rain falls we have problems.”

He said he opted recently to officiate at a funeral service in the Castara public cemetery.

“The funeral service, everything, would have taken place in the church but I was afraid because of the weather conditions and the water that would accumulate in the road. So, I did the service in the cemetery before the burial. When rain falls we cannot pass to get to church.”

Edwards said as a senior citizen, he is fed up of the situation.

He said over the years he had spoken to Secretary for Infrastructure/Quarries and the Environment Kwesi Des Vignes, former THA representative for Speyside/L’Anse Fourmi/Parlatuvier Tracy Davidson-Celestine, current representative Farley Augustine and other officials about the drain.

He claimed his appeals for assistance have fallen on deaf ears.

“I went into various works departments, special works. They come and see but no action has taken place yet. I made many reports over the years but when Government change they get new people...So, now, I don’t know what to do.”

Contacted for comment, Augustine said he spoke to Edwards about the drain in January.

“I have visited the area many, many times. I have spoken to the district works office in Mason Hall,” he said.

He said officials have visited the area but no work has been done.

“I believe that the district has since changed District Superintendent for the area. I will try to get on to the current officer.”

Augustine said he plans to visit Depot Road on Friday.

“My next line of action will be to apply public pressure as a way of embarrassing the department into action.”