Surviving with a CEPEP wage for the past nine years, Kizzy Scipio was on the verge of completing a stable home. She was hoping to move in last Christmas.
However, the heavy rains which created havoc around Divali 2017, caused a major landslip that sent Scipio’s old home on Sixth Company Circular Road, New Grant crashing down the hill. Within a short time, the concrete wall of the home she was building also fell.
With the landslip already eroding most of the width of the road, residents lit discarded appliances, furniture and tyres to voice their concerns.
Scipio, 35, said she had to send her 13-year-old niece to live with someone else while she begs a lodging at a neighbour’s home. After recalling the night when heavy rains pounded the community, she said she awoke the next morning to find the massive landslide outside her home. She said she went to her MP Dr Lovell Francis, who promised to help her find a home.
“I didn’t even get a chance to move into my new place. On Thursday, the wall fell down and I am staying with a neighbour. I am fed up of this and I need somewhere to go. It’s everything I lost,” Scipio said.
As the landslip worsens, Scipio’s neighbour Melissa Baptiste, 25, fears that she along with her home would be swept down the hill. Baptiste’s home, in which the upper level was damaged by a fire, has already started to tilt. It is strenuous for Baptiste to leave her home each morning as her driveway has collapsed and she has to use her hands and legs to climb out.
“What can I do? I have nowhere to stay,” Baptiste said.
Princes Town police, led by ASP Rohan Pardasie, escorted a backhoe to clear the road while ensuring that the traffic could flow.
Francis visited the protest yesterday and he received a tongue-lashing over the Government’s delayed response to repairing the road as well as finding a home for Scipio.
Francis said he had already contacted the Ministry of Works and Transport and minor repairs are expected today. He said the Ministry of Social Development will bear the cost of rental accommodation for Scipio for six months.
He said last rainy season brought usual rainfall that worsen the conditions of the roads that were already damaged.
He said the issue was that part of the road was under the care of the Ministry of Works while the other belonged to the Princes Town Regional Corporation. Residents said that unless works start today, they will continue to protest.