Street lighting going too far

The so called “Street Lighting” project is but one of their adventures that I believe should be investigated.

I remember clearly the crew coming into the street where I live and replacing lights on poles with almost identical lights, the earlier ones were previously providing very good light. Of course the work was done at night and it must have attracted premium pay, no doubt reducing internal objections.

Then there are the strange locations that are deemed to need lighting. All persons in Port-of-Spain can look up to the north at night and there for all to see is a string of lights going up the otherwise blackness of Cascade’s beautiful almost unspoilt mountain ridge, beyond Hololo Road.

I travel about quite a lot in Trinidad and one night found myself in the Navet area bordering the Nariva swamp. There to my astonishment there were street lights along a most remote road through cocoa plantations. Really, a light or two may be welcomed in populated areas of the country — but are they really needed to illuminate cocoa? Drive down Manzanilla beach and you will learn to your horror that the road is being illuminated there too. Turtles are starting to nest on the beach and manatee are reportedly in the immediately adjacent swamp. It was one of the last “unspoiled” sections of roadway you drive on at night. And finally there is the one that really takes the cake. At Grafton Bay in Tobago the roadway right next to Grafton beach where turtles come in to nest is currently being equipped with street lighting. Doesn’t anyone think before these plans are made?

R Potter

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