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ABOUT 100 residents, together with farmers and other estate workers of Brasso Seco Trace, off one of the country's most remote and sparsely populated villages, remain practically trapped in the area after last week's latest landslip.
Jovi Chalerie, a resident of Brasso Seco for over 20 years, told Newsday the landslip had covered the very same spot on the already dilapidated road for the fourth time in just the last couple of months.
Users of the road are pleading with the Tunapuna/Piarco Regional Corporation, the authority responsible for its maintenance, not just to clear it as quickly as possible but more importantly to expedite long-term solutions, which Chalerie and other residents have offered.
The latest landslip happened during heavy rainfall last Wednesday – two days after a backhoe was brought in to clear the previous one.
Chalerie, who works on an approximately 80-acre estate used for poultry, cocoa, bananas, cassava and many other crops, told Newsday nothing was actually done to prevent a recurrence.
"This last landslip is not high...maybe three to four feet. But it's very slushy," he told Newsday by phone on Monday.
Chalerie provided Newsday with video and images of this landslip and the previous recent ones.
"It's recurring," he said, "because they aren't clearing (the landslip) properly."
Brasso Seco is a relatively short distance away from Lalaja, another remote community, which has always been practically inaccessible to regular vehicles because of the access road's particularly rough terrain, even outside the rainy season.
"Obviously more attention (is needed) than just clearing out the slush, but that's a good place to start," Chalerie said.
"People have produce that they literally cannot (transport) out, because if your vehicle, as in my employers' case (where) there's several Hiluxes (and other) trucks...they are stuck on the wrong side of the landslip. Not even if you have good mud terrain tyres, nothing..."
There is an apiary situated beyond that estate, but even the bee-keeper and estate owner, identified as Mr Maharaj, who drives a Farmall tractor, has been unable to access it.
An emergency, therefore, could lead to a tragic but preventable outcome.
[caption id="attachment_909036" align="alignnone" width="1024"] August 23 image of a landslide on Brasso Seco Trace, reportedly the fourth in the same spot in about two months. Photo courtesy resident.[/caption]
"You'll have to get whoever has a vehicle inside to drop you by the landslip, and either they carry you over the actual landslip or up the hill. We cut a track, (but it) is muddy and slippery up and around the landslip."
The road connects to the Arima-Blanchisseuse Road, which he describes as "inaccessible by all except maybe a trail bike."
It has "dwindled down to like a track bike course," he said, "(because) it's never maintained."
He said two of the three landslips were cleared by the corporation.
"But it was done haphazard."
The solution, he said, "is simple, really. Clear the drains. The last three times, they did not clear the drains."
The blocked drains divert the water, Chalerie said, further exacerbating the problem.
"First you clear out the slush and loose material and make a plateau," he suggested. "Then bevel it to the road so any loose material that may (come down) in the future will be at least trapped for the while. So every time a drizzle comes (the road won't be impassable)."
Retaining walls and improved drainage, he added, are both logical long-term solutions.
Since there has been no response to the latest landslip, he said, he and other residents inside Brasso Seco Trace and the village itself have been working towards hiring a private backhoe to clear the road.
Not only is that unsustainable, since they would be permitted to do no more than simply clearing the road and drains, but Chalerie argued that private individuals shouldn't have to do that themselves in the first place.
"(The corporation) is aware of it, but between them and the Ministry of Works, they playing football... They only trying to pass it off to each other and nothing is being done."
Newsday tried several times to reach both corporation chairman Kwasi Robinson and CEO Kathy Mills-Mark, as well as the councillor for Blanchisseuse/Santa Rosa, Sheldon Moore, who is responsible for addressing the concerns of Brasso Seco and neighbouring areas, but none answered or returned the calls by Monday evening.
MP for Arima Pennelope Beckles and other officials visited the affected area after the third landslip.
"But nothing was done until (it was reported in the newspaper on August 14)," Chalerie said. "Immediately, the day after that, two backhoes reach."
"The response is too slow," he said, "and the effects on people's lives are real, so we can't just sit and wait."
 
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