What is size of Trinidad?

THE EDITOR: A couple years ago, a Trinidadian living abroad visited the Icacos/Cedros area where he realised that a lighthouse had disappeared beneath the ocean’s floor. He later showed that an entire piece of land had been lost to the sea. An article appeared some days later in the newspaper which read, “Is Trinidad drowning?” It caused quite a stir among locals. I myself love visiting the sea along the southern coast and have noticed huge chunks of land being eroded into the sea. I saw on the news sometime ago, houses on the southern coast being threatened by erosion and if you speak to people nearby, Granville for example, they would tell you that the sea has been eroding the land quite rapidly in that area. There are not many people living directly on the southern coast and reports of erosion in that area are hardly ever announced to the wider public.All this leads to my question, what is the true area of Trinidad? Our history books have taught us that the island’s area is 1864 (one thousand eight hundred and sixty four) square miles. However, after seeing some of these eroded areas, it would be interesting for our local map makers to reveal the true area of Trinidad and inform the public as to how much land was lost by erosion over the last fifty years.

MICKELL
GUNNESSLAL
Student of Iere High School,
Siparia