Rowley, farmers clash over houses

Rowley sought to assure the farmers, during a tour of Guave Road, that only part of the land would be used for houses.

Rowley stood firm that the ministry’s construction plan won’t change but he met resistance from the farmers who insisted that no one, not even the Government, would be allowed to take away their lands.

Joseph Richardson, president of the Guave Road Farmers’ Association, showed Rowley a photocopy of a picture showing an area he claimed was earmarked for the housing project. But Rowley dismissed him with the advice that he was misleading himself.

Pointing to another part of the document, and making the claim again, Rowley assured Richardson that none of the areas he identified would be touched. Rowley was at pains to convince the farmers that the wetlands they were worried about would also not be affected. The cross-talk continued and tempers began to flare.

Richardson said sewage from the housing development would flow into the wetlands which the farmers used for their crops.

But Rowley said Chaguaramas had a sewer system and there was a main through which waste passed, and no effluent would be disposed of in the wetlands. “This means you would not have cesspits and soakaways, so solid waste would not go into the ground.

“Whatever solid waste produced from the houses, would go into pipes and flow into the sewer system at Chaguaramas,” he said. An agitated Rowley told Richardson, “I am saying to you, it is not an engineering problem to move sewer from here to there. I live at Goodwood Park, and my sewer goes to Sea Lots.”

Answering another question, Rowley told the small group of farmers, and Richardson in particular, “If the point you are making is that where you have houses and if you have drinking water around, you shouldn’t have drinking water, then you are wrong.”

But some of the farmers interrupted Rowley and shouted insults at him. “When you look for land across the country, I can tell you, wherever we choose a piece of land for houses, there is some objection, because somebody said it should be used for something else,” Rowley insisted. He also assured the few farmers who would be affected that they will be given alternative spots.

He told the farmers they should allow their opinions to be guided by accurate information.