St. Peters:--- Several residents of the St. Peters community are at their wits ends with the sewage water that has been running through their homes and yards for years and nothing has been done to rectify the hazardous situation that poses health risks to the residents of the area.SMN News spoke to three residents of Lime Road whose properties are filled with sewage water that is drained from the nearby homes. Doradine Gumbs said that she grew up on Lime Road and it has been 35 years now that she has been trying to get government to deal with the constant sewage water that is running through her yard on a daily basis. Gumbs said the former board members of the SPCC did nothing to assist the residents that are plagued with the fresh sewage water. Gumbs showed an SMN News reporter the fresh sewage water that is now seeping through the walls of her home, causing her to abandon one of the apartments in her yard. She said several inspectors visited the area but they never returned neither have they done anything to rectify the problem.
Marie Jeffers also showed SMN News her property and the amount of fresh sewage in her yard. Jeffers said that the sewage is coming from a neighbor's yard and she complained to government but to date nothing has been done. At the back of one of the homes that is located next to the Jeffers' property there is an open septic tank that is covered with a piece of plywood while sewage water is overflowing from the septic tank on to the Jeffers' property. The constant sewage overflow has now damaged the Jeffers' home causing tiles inside their bathroom to fall off, yet government officials and the health inspectors that visited the area did nothing to rectify the problem.
Mrs. Jeffers said one of her granddaughter's got a skin infection due to the sewage water and the child had to be taken overseas for treatment. Both the President of SPCC Rene Junior Wilson and Mrs. Jeffers said several inspectors and government official visited the area and promised to rectify the sewage problem but to date nothing has been done. Wilson said the SPCC board even met with the former vice president Maurice Lake and he promised to look into the matter but to date nothing has been done. "The new SPCC board wanted to meet with the Minister of Infrastructure Theodore Heyliger but Lake prevented us from seeing the Minister, he claimed he will work on the problems facing the St. Peters community but to date Lake has not addressed the problems brought forth by the residents of St. Peters and the SPCC board." In an invited comment, Lake said he never met with the SPCC board and furthermore he is not interested in being part of the SPCC board. Maurice Lake is the executive advisor to Minister Heyliger, he said that his only interest is to look out for the St. Peters community and by doing so he has offered his assistance in reorganizing the SPCC board. As for the new President of SPCC, Lake said Rene Cotto Wilson appointed himself as president and he (Lake) wanted to make sure an election is held so that the members of SPCC can be duly elected. Lake said he plans to hold a town hall meeting shorting to inform the residents of the area of the SPCC election and if Rene Cotto Wilson wants he can postulate for the position.
Wilson said instead of Lake dealing with the problems that are facing the residents he went to the newspapers claiming that the SPCC board needs to be reorganized. Wilson said the former board members of SPCC are refusing to cooperate with the current board members because SPCC board members believe that whatever work has to be done in their area must be given to the contractors living in St. Peters. Wilson said St. Peters have a number of heavy equipment owners who are not able to get work from government and the council believes that work in the area must be contracted to the people living in their community so that the youths of St. Peters can eventually find work. Besides that, Wilson said since the installation of the new board he is unable to get the necessary paperwork from the former SPCC board members. "The only person who tried to assist was the former President Rolando Tobias, but he never gave us the paperwork. We don't even know who handles the SPCC bank account because the former members of the SPCC board were never changed at the Chamber of Commerce. I went to the Chamber of Commerce to retrieve the Chamber registration only to find out that the SPCC owed the Chamber of Commerce close to Naf.4000.00 and the new board members have to now pool monies to pay that debt. Furthermore, there is a new board in place since August 2011 and someone from the former board withdrew monies from the SPCC account in October 2011. Wilson said they managed to recover a statement from the Windward Islands Bank that was mailed to SPCC at # 3 Tangerine Road, St. Peters that showed that someone debited $474.82 from the account on October 31, 2011." Wilson provided the WIB bank statement to SMN News as evidence of the withdrawal.Maurice Lake provided SMN News with the statement of account which shows all the monetary transactions for the account for the years 2008 through 2011. The October 31st withdrawal shows that a bank overdraft was done on that day.
The President of the St. Peters Community Council (SPCC) Rene Junior Wilson also reacted to newspaper article that was published earlier this week criticizing the SPCC. "The former Vice President of the SPCC Maurice Lake should be the last person to talk about running sewage water on the St. Peters public roads because Lake's mother has been pumping her raw sewage on the road for years." Wilson took SMN News reporter to # 3 Tangerine Road where a pipe and hose from the home is leading to the public road and water is constantly flowing out. When confronted with this Maurice Lake said that the water emanating from his mother's yard is spring water and not sewage water. He said the water is lodged in his mother's yard because the other neighbors blocked off the back of her yard. Lake also said the water that is running down Lime and Tangerine Road comes from the Hillside Public School.
Wilson said that as recent as Thursday a pump was attached to the hose that is leading from the Lake's property and the fresh sewage water was pumped out on to the main road.
Another resident who shared concerns and witnessed the sewage water from the Lake's property is Reginald Bakari Arrindell. Arrindell said he is trying to find out who might have provided a letter he wrote to the President of the SPCC to the former board members. He said he is currently investigating the leak because the contents of his letter to SPCC was printed in one of the daily newspapers and he neither Wilson gave anyone the letter. Arrindell said he is very much concerned about the current situation facing his community as such he penned a letter to Wilson asking him if the SPCC plans to hold a town hall meeting with the residents to update them on the activities that are planned by the SPCC. He said he also enquired if the activities were postponed and to his surprise the contents of his letter to Wilson appeared the following day in the newspapers.
Another resident told SMN News that the persons working at the helpdesk approached her and offered assistance but to date she have not seen them back, instead she received a letter telling her that her address now comes into question. The woman said that her yard was flooded for years with sewage water and during the 2010 elections one of the candidates that ran on the National Alliance slate and Rene Wilson took sand to fill in her yard. "Thanks to Wilson and the NA candidate I can now walk at the back of my house."
While the residents of Lime and Tangerine Road have spoken out hoping that they will attract Government's attention namely the Minister of Infrastructure Theodore Heyliger, students attending the Prince Willem Alexander School have to walk through a pool of sewage water on a daily basis to get to the school's compound. The raw sewage water that is running down from Lime Road and Tangerine Road passes in front of the school.
Click here to view photos of the sewage water on Tangerine Road and Lime Road in St. Peters.