Rio Claro residents staged a fiery protest this morning to highlight their frustration with a number of issues affecdting their area.
Lack of pipe-borne water, escalating erosion, and poor road conditions, led to the residents blocking the roadways at St Emelia Street, Cemetery Trace, and La Paruse.
Protesters raised concerns about safety, citing a lack of accessibility for emergency vehicles due to the conditions.
Residents say they are fearful about structural integrity of the land in the area, with one house already having collapsed on St Emelia Trace.
“We’ve tried to manage with the resources we have, purchasing materials ourselves to fix the road but there’s been no help from government agencies,” one protester said.
MP for Mayaro, Rushton Paray, highlighted the gravity of the situation by revealing that “there are over 100 landslips in the constituency, affecting dozens of homes.”
He said there had been attempts made by the Mayaro/Rio Claro Regional Corporation to address the situation saying, “They have made numerous visits with their engineering teams to investigate. Despite continuous communication from my office to state agencies for direct intervention, our pleas have fallen on deaf ears.”
Paray said the funding required for repairs remains unavailable at the MRCRC.