When will Diego Martin quarrying stop?

Residents of Diego Martin driving into the valley past the so called building site are now faced with a gigantic scarred rock face.

The operation has quarried sufficient material away from the base of the Fort George Hill to create a veritable cliff. The works now approach, and seem to endanger, housing in the north of the quarried area.

Dust blankets houses which might be at any time be down wind of the quarry, and the amount of heavy equipment in the area does not indicate that there is any intention to reduce the operations in the foreseeable future.

When will the quarrying stop? Is there anyone who is empowered to say “enough” to those who are in charge of its operation? Or will they be allowed to use their own judgment as to when to stop, in which case Fort George and Cumberland Hill will be in mortal danger together with everything around those venerable sites.

The destruction of the San Fernando Hill should have been an object lesson to all of us on the damage caused by indiscriminate quarrying to the environment, both aesthetic and otherwise.

The existence of a large operating quarry at the entrance of Diego Martin, a major bedroom suburb of Port-of-Spain, is a gross insult to the thousands that live in the area and who must daily pass the site.

It is an insult that should only have been perpetrated by an unfeeling authority on a third world population.

Where is the outrage that brought a halt to the quarry on the Lady Young Road some years ago?

E MEDINA
Diego Martin