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RATS, oil waste, and illegal parking are some of the complaints of Tacarigua residents living around the Orange Grove Savannah. They said the regional corporation is granting people permission to infringe on the sporting uses of the grounds.
They made the statements during a lecture by Prof Selwyn Cudjoe on Tacarigua, A Historical Village In Trinidad: Orange Grove Savannah A Legacy Worth Preserving, hosted by the Save Our Green Spaces Committee.
Joyce Thomas of the Burnley Athletic Club said the club has had to fight with traffic and food vendors in order to train at the grounds.
“Rugby has been discontinued because the food vendors are now located directly in front of the goalposts.
“We got permission to have a throwing area, but it’s also being used as a carpark. As soon as we’re finished throwing, cars come to park there, and sometimes they’re even lining up
“The ground in front of the grandstand is hardly ever cut and the corporation has reprimanded coaches for cutting it. They say the corporation has to cut it, but their equipment is usually broken for months at a time.”
Thomas said the rat population had expanded greatly since the food court was opened at the Eddie Hart Savannah.
“There’s a canal that’s hardly ever kept clean. I don’t know if the corporation thinks it’s sanitary to have a food court there.”
Dinsley Cricket Club representative Peter Burke said the major challenge facing the club was people parking on the cricket grounds.
“We had to take legal action to have the regional corporation to stop the practice, as well as installing a gate in order to maintain a quality surface to play cricket. It’s important that cricket grounds are manicured and as flat as possible.”
Oswald Haynes of Buggy Haynes Coaching School said the attitudes of different groups to the use of the grounds were a mixed bag. He said the school mostly trained athletes in track and field and cricket.
“We haven’t been given a good share of the park. We’ve been asking the government for assistance for years to construct a long-jump pit, but we’ve only gotten lip service. One time they came and made assessments and plans, but nothing came of it. It’s fruitless until we put our efforts together and develop it ourselves.”
St Mary’s Anglican Church parish priest Dr Anderson Maxwell called for provision for collecting water which comes from the hills into the savannah, which is also a reservoir.
“The pond in Paradise East is inadequate for water collection. Once there is a good shower of rain, the area floods and then it goes over to the Eastern Main Road.”
Dr Carol James said savannahs such as Orange Grove and others contribute to water management.
[caption id="attachment_1088235" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Vehicles parked near a food court both of which are on the compound of the Orange Grove Savannah. - Photo by Angelo Marcelle[/caption]
“Water comes down from the Northern Range and filters down to the savannah from the Queen’s Park Savannah to Arima. The water is trapped in the soil of the savannah as a reservoir/basin, it’s an aquifer.
“WASA had 15 wells in the Savannah; now it’s ten wells. When we moved here 15 years ago, we had such high water pressure we had to change faucets regularly. Now the water pressure is abysmal.
“Over 50 acres were given to the people of the area as an aquifer by the previous owner. Now there are less than ten acres free. The mix of flowering trees and ponds meant migratory birds would breed there.”
She said the savannah was being transformed into a disastrous environment.
“There are many rats because of waste from food carts.
“The aquifer is being contaminated by waste oil from the vendors.
“Cars and trucks drive on the savannah.
“We’ve lost ten trees in the last few years, as cuttings from the savannah were accumulated under the trees and set on fire, so the whole tree went on fire.
“The hockey field is now covered with gravel, because it became mud after people were allowed to park on it."
James said the trees were important, as with rising temperatures, the elderly people who walked the savannah were now staying in the shade.
“We had the worst fires in the savannah over the past year.”
Save Our Green Spaces Committee chairman Peter Burke said the committee was formed in 2013 when then sports minister Anil Roberts proposed the construction of a multi-sporting complex at the Tacarigua Savannah. The committee eventually took the ministry to court, and the Tunapuna Piarco Regional Corporation issued a stop order notice to halt construction work by the Sports Company of TT.
He noted two water companies were siphoning water from the aquifer under the savannah for export.
“People are underestimating their impact.
“The companies don’t have to deal with rationing. They are taking away water faster than it’s being replaced.
“We are getting water two or three times a week in the area, but there’s no limit on how much the companies can take. If we don’t look sharp, we will have a water crisis in no time.”
Cudjoe urged residents to come together and protest until the regional corporation and government took them seriously and addressed their issues.
 
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