Landslip damages house, road in Siparia

Overnight land movement at Skinner Trace, Quarry Village in Siparia, damaged a pensioner’s house and widened cracks in the road, making it impassable for several hours.

Some of the 125 affected residents did not go to work.

Pensioner Ramdeo Ramoutar, 67, told Newsday he recently saw several minor cracks in his yard.

He said it rained heavily on Wednesday night, but he did not expect the cracks to widen so much on Thursday. There were huge depressions in his front and back yards, and the shed at the side of the house had several cracks. The cracks in his yard extended to the road.

"The land keeps pulling. The shed is now leaning, and some of the posts moved," he said.

He said he had no money to relocate or buy a new house.

Siparia West / Fyzabad councillor Jason Ali and other Siparia Regional Corporation representatives patched the street off the SS Erin Road, allowing cars to pass.

Another resident, Barry Herbert, 63, said, "At around 6.30 am, I saw the road opened up about six inches and dropped about 20 inches. I thought it was a matter of putting some gravel in the space."

Herbert said he immediately called a businessman, who agreed to give him two loads of gravels. The businessman also called the councillor for transport to get the materials at the site, and the councillor asked for two more loads.

Herbert, a retired police corporal, does not believe the authority will solve the recurring problem of the bad road and land movement.

The councillor told Newsday the corporation has no materials to serve burgesses properly.

"I called a contractor and bought two loads of materials. Pioneer Contractors gave me two loads of materials. "Out of the corporation’s seven backhoes, only one is working. We borrowed one from the Penal/Debe Regional Corporation to help patch the road," Ali said. "We repaired it so at least the residents have a place to pass."

The work, he said, is temporary relief.

Ali added that at the end of Skinner Trace, there is an access road that was abandoned about 20 years ago. It connects to Field Road.

"We put some of the materials on it so if the road at the top collapses, residents would have an alternative route," Ali said."It is not a safe access route, because it does not have electricity or streetlights. There is about a quarter-mile of no houses."

The councillor said he wrote to the Rural Development and Local Government Ministry last November asking for landslip repairs at Skinner Trace and La Brea Trace. The ministry acknowledged receipt of the letter a month later.

He estimated that a retaining wall to stabilise the land at Skinner Trace would cost millions.

The road started to worsen, and it was found that there was an underground leak in a four-inch pipeline under it. The Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) was contacted, and a crew did some repairs recently.

Ali believes the saturated land and the bad weather caused the land to move faster. He wants the authority to stabilise the land and repair the road.