Burst WASA pipe and rain cause collapse of pensioner’s home

AN 81-year-old pensioner and his wife were yesterday forced to abandon their house after it collapsed in Princes Town. Water from a burst WASA pipeline compounded by persistent rainfall, reduced the wood and concrete house of Ragoobar Jankie to a pile of rubble. Four other families from the rural Mandingo Road community have also been forced to abandon their homes, fearing that the houses could tumble down at any minute.

When Newsday visited the area yesterday, residents said numerous complaints to the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) and the Ministry of Works had fallen on deaf ears. WASA’s main pipeline along the Mandingo Road has been gushing water for weeks, resulting in several landslides. Sitting in his neighbour’s verandah yesterday, Jankie said the front of the house went down in the mud last week Tuesday. It sank about ten feet. At first, wife Nazimoon, 61, sought refuge at a neighbour’s home.

But days after, continuous rain pushed a dirt down the slope where Jankie’s house once stood. Jankie rushed across to his neighbour’s when he saw the land “slipping.” “The rest of the house went tumbling down. We didn’t even get a chance to salvage the furniture,” Jankie said. The other four affected families have since moved out of their homes. Jankie said they were staying with relatives because they feared the land would pull their house down the slope. Works and Transport Minister Franklin Khan has instructed officials from the ministry to assess the damage caused by the landslip.