Construction rip-off in Tobago

In Tobago, it is now the norm for contractors to build incompetently functioning septic systems. These scientifically uneducated and- unteachable persons actually construct systems which cause the run- off of the septic systems to enter the drains in an untreated condition.

In many cases guttering run-off is connected to "wash out the system." In many cases a genuine functioning soak-away is not included.

This is a rip-off to the house owner, a nuisance to the neighbours and destruction to the environment since run-off of water on land ends up in the sea. This raw sewage is affecting our sea water quality and reefs.

Secondly, in Tobago the practice of establishing an area to mix concrete on one’s own property seems to have gone out the door. In Burleigh Heights, Signal Hill persons constructing private houses are actually mixing concrete on the road. In these modern days of cement trucks, a backhoe was also recently used to mix concrete in the street. It must be noted that the Government recently paved the Burleigh Height Road at the expense of the taxpayers. Is this fair to all concerned? Is it right that people should walk and drive on messed up roads?

Thirdly, some contractors do not observe a healthy environment. They do not provide toilet facilities for their employees to use.

Some block the drains while construction takes place with no regard for the mosquitoes affecting the neighbourhood.

I hereby call on home owners — foreign and local — to ensure that best practices are employed when they are dishing out their money to the local contractors. If they do not monitor these men, they set up themselves to make enemies of their neighbours before they even finish build.

I also call on the THA and their limping Health Authority to put inspections in place that will effect immediate change in regard to regulating construction activities on the island.

Bill Major

Scarborough