Post-Caroni jitters in Central

THE EDITOR: A quiet shudder is running through Couva and other sugar cane growing areas. This trepidation is largely linked to the fate of Caroni Ltd and what the proposed development is to bring. Most of us in Couva are glad to be rid of the low flying crop dusting aircraft which doused our homes with foul smelling pesticides aimed at froghoppers chomping the canefields away.

No one knows how many of us would be saved from respiratory ailments and cancers, now the dusters are gone. The real tragedy is the loss of the picturesque green fields stretching to the horizon and the spectacular glow of cane fires in the night. Mnay of us have caught birds and fishes, hiked, sucked canes, tethered animals. Heck, some even made love and conceived their children in the green fields (a dangerous practice now). A bigger threat may be looming on the horizon. The State, through its agent Mr Rao, stated that it intends to build houses and factories on Caroni’s lands in Couva and other areas. This is what is worrisome. The Point Lisas Industrial Estate cost us all our beaches. There once was Goodrich Bay, Monkey Point Bay, Point Lisas Bay and Carli Bay. Carli Bay is the only one which was not gobbled up by the industry.

Today it is plagued by a dump which is on its precincts. Point Lisas is bursting at the seams and the planners may be tempted to put some of these factories to the east as was done with Inncogen. East of Couva is upwind and spells trouble for all of us depending on what type of industry is placed here. In the late 1970s the State established a baggasse plant east of Dow Village, California. Over the years, when the plant was active, baggasse particles caused thousands of cases of respiratory ailments and a few suspected deaths. Most were glad when this plant shut its doors. We must at all cost not be hemmed in by plants in the east and in the west. Housing too brings its own share of perils. Several thousand new residents have moved into the Couva area over the years. With them came all day traffic jams and an increase in crime, especially burglaries and lately robberies in the business area. Most of these newcomers are indeed decent hard working people; however among them are a few well qualified rogues.

Minister Rahael stated that the East West Corridor is bursting at the seams and Central has the room for expansion. Herein is where the fears lie. Everyone hopes that Mr Rahael’s East-West expansion into Central does not mean a transplanting of the crime and shootings which have become a common part of the East-West landscape. One hysterical Indo-Trinidadian woman wrote me expressing her community’s fear of Minister Rahael and the PNM unleashing hordes of “big baigan” (she was not so modest) EW Corridor African men to rape and molest them. No double the lifestyles, landscape and social fabric of Couva would be altered drastically with these plans. Whether this would be progress remains to be seen. What is still a mystery is how an Indian national (Mr Rao of the Land Management Agency) is dividing up State lands in our Independent Trinidad and Tobago.

MC DONALD JAMES
Couva