62-year-old seeks relocation as HDC apartment flooded

Sancho has been living on the ground floor of Building 2, Olera Heights, San Fernando since August 2009 and ever since then, her bedroom and kitchen floods every time it rains.

“I have to dip out buckets of water from the apartment,” Sancho wrote in a letter to the HDC’s rental department on January 6.

Sancho blames the constant flooding for the death of her sister who died from a stroke.

“Many times my sister (who was ill) and I would get up and put our feet in the water, but this did not work out for her. She got a stroke and passed away.” As for Sancho, her arthritis worsens each day as she sometimes has to walk in the cold water at night and on mornings when she wakes up to use the bathroom.

She said there is mould growing on the walls and it is so bad that workmen refused to clean the room for fear of falling ill. Rats and cockroaches, said Sancho, also invade her kitchen at night, exacerbating her concerns about her health.

“This apartment is unsuitable for me to live because sooner or later I will be crippled,” wrote Sancho. She said she would be grateful to be relocated to the vacant HDC building just opposite her own as long as she is saved the nightmare of living on another ground floor.

Contacted for comment yesterday, HDC’s corporate communication’s manager Maurisa Findlay said she would investigate Sancho’s complaints today before commenting.