South squatters protest ‘outhouse’

Some 150 residents of the squatting community burned debris, blocking the only access pathway into Thompson Gardens. The area houses a settlement where several squatting families have made their home.

More than 50 baton-toting policemen rushed to the scene around 6 am, and were greeted by burning debris and an angry mob of residents.

Spokesperson Bal Ramsaroop told Newsday, "We don’t want to cause this bacchanal, but we want roads, lights and toilets. We just want someone to know that we are still living here."

The settlement consists of 40 wooden houses which were erected last year by the National Housing Authority (NHA). The authority did so after Manning, in whose San Fernando East constituency the residents live, intervened in their plight. Their homes had been demolished by NHA backhoes, which forced many of them to sleep at the nearby Union Hall Recreation Ground.

The NHA eventually settled the squatters at Thompson Gardens, where the authority reconstructed several makeshift wooden structures. The authority also constructed a few "outhouses." Four standpipes were also erected. The squatters pay $75 a month to the NHA to live at the settlement.

Ramsaroop said that the squatters were tired of complaining to the NHA about their need for basic facilities. "All of us here have four latrines to use and that overflowing for the last few months. How could they expect our wives and children to use these? It is even worse at nights because we don’t have any lights connected to the outhouses," Ramsaroop said.

One female resident said the filth from the outhouses often flows into the bathrooms. Many of the children, she added, suffered from skin infections and ringworm. The residents said NHA began construction of a cesspit last month. "But they only dig the hole and leave it," Ramsaroop said. Water has filled the hole, he added, in which mosquitoes breed.

Ramroop said due to inaccessibility to the settlement, a fire ambulance was unable to extinguish a fire which eventually burnt one of the houses earlier this week.

Councillor for the area, Deonarine Ragoo, said the lands which the residents are occupying previously belonged to the defunct Caroni (1975) Ltd. He said the lands were yet to be vested in the Princes Town Regional Corporation.