Family faces eviction from $280,000 home

A FAMILY in South Trinidad faces eviction by the Public Health Authority from their house which a leaking WASA pipeline undermined and caused to collapse. Sita Webb, 50,  was  given  21 days  from June 4,  to vacate her house or face prosecution by the Local Health Authority of  the  Debe/Penal Regional Corpora-tion. The house is too dangerous for occupation, the notice stated. But WASA authorities, having acknowledged that their  burst  pipeline damaged the concrete house, have offered Webb $25,000 to re-locate her home. Webb’s property, according to a Quanity Surveyor’s estimate, is worth $280,000.  The house is located at Diamond Village, a few miles from San Fernando. Living with her husband and two children in a house cracked in the centre, the bedrooms at the back hanging  precariously  on broken pillars and  its  roof  sinked in, Webb is caught between a rock and a hard place. “Imagine I have to evict a house by a court order which WASA make dangerous, not me!,” Webb said.

The house began cracking in 1999 when a leaking mainline in front of  the house seeped water under the house. The land became water-logged and the pillars gave way. Webb has  written  letters  to  WASA authorities, sought help from politicians as well as the Ombudsman, but to no avail. Last year the front of the house collapsed. The tiled floor split when the back pillars tilted, leaving several large gaping cracks and holes. Inside Web’s house resembles the ruins from an explosion. She, her husband Fitzwilliam, 45, children Kennrick Kurth, 13, and Sean Roopnarine, 16, have been forced to sleep in one bedroom. Last week, Webb said, her son Kenrick fell “flat on his chest while trying to step over one of the cracks, into the bathroom”. Webb said she cannot cook roti because it slides off the “tawah”, the kitchen having been tilted to an almost  60 degree angle. It  is  attached to the living room, but only by pieces of bent steel. “I dunno what to do now I have no where to go. I’m not taking $25,000 for my house,” said Webb, who began crying as she related her predicament to Newsday yesterday. The eviction notice states that her premises is in such a decayed, ruinous and unwholesome state, that it is likely to be injurious to Health and Safety. Failure to comply, the notice  threatened, will result in a summons being issued for her to answer a complaint before a magistrate. “This is such an injustice to me. WASA break up my house and refuse to repair or relocate me, now I have to leave,” a tearful Webb said. She has until next week Wednesday to vacate, according to the notice.