Potholes in the land of the Pitch Lake

THE EDITOR: Several centuries ago, Sir Walter Raleigh arrived in Trinidad in search of El Dorado, the fabled city of gold.

Unfortunately, his ships met with damage which led to major leaks. While sailing across the Gulf of Paria, Sir Walter reputedly inhaled the tar from the Pitch Lake and this may have piqued his curiosity, which eventually led him to the shores of Terra de Brea (La Brea in the modern world).

The indigenous Caribs met with him and his crew and guided him to the area known as the Pitch Lake. He realised that the strange substance was ideal for caulking his ships and therefore took home several barrels of asphalt.

Nearly 500 years later, TT has access to the largest natural deposit of asphalt in the world. The lake reputedly contains ten million tonnes of asphalt, covers roughly 100 acres and is estimated to be 76 metres deep in its centre.

On his second voyage to Trinidad, Sir Walter Raleigh took some of the asphalt home with him, where it was used to pave Westminster Bridge for the opening of the British Parliament.

In a land with a natural resource that is regarded as the eighth wonder of the world, this resource apparently has been completely wasted based on the state of our roads.

Tobago’s roads are far superior to those in Trinidad, and one has to ask the question: why are Trinidad’s roads so horrible when this country has an actual pitch lake at its disposal?

The world knows that asphalt from the Pitch Lake in Trinidad has been used to pave the driveways of Buckingham Palace, runways in Germany, and the Olympic Village in Beijing.

The world has sourced asphalt from our Pitch Lake to better their roads yet ours are in a most deplorable condition and has been so for decades.

Clearly there is dereliction of duty in the Ministry of Works and Transport as this country has an everlasting and bountiful resource of asphalt waiting to be used by foreigners when our roads are nothing but craters and fissures.

The mere fact that our Pitch Lake is not being put to good use is reason enough to oust the line minister from office.

What is a crying shame is that we have agents of the state issuing tickets and demerit points to drivers for having sub-par vehicles when the State has allowed sub-par roads which in turn contributes to the damage to vehicles.

Where is the sanction to the State for this continued dereliction of duty, especially when there is an abundance of asphalt not being used to repair our roads?

YUDHISTHA ORIE

Via e-mail