Thursday, August 28 2008

EVERY day water from a clogged drain overflows onto Catherine Billy’s property at Bootan Lane, Barataria, flooding her front yard.

Although it is an inconvenience, Billy said she is more concerned about her perimeter wall. She said the water had saturated the soil underneath it, undermining the wall’s structure.

“The whole place is just wet and you can see it is damaging the wall. If that falls my house will be exposed to any and everyone. In this day and age, that is a safety risk I cannot have,” Billy said.

She said the drain which ran next to her house was narrow and shallow and unable to facilitate the water run off in the area.

Billy said the drain was built in the late 1960’s and was adequate at that time. Since then, however, Billy said the community had developed tremendously and there were now residential and commercial buildings, but the drainage system remained the same.

“If I close my hand, the hand has more depth than that drain. So you can see the problem I am facing,” Billy said.

She added that she has been desperately trying to get the situation resolved since 2006. Billy said she has also approached the San Juan/Laventille Regional Cor-poration as well as the MP for her area for assistance.

“Once the regional corporation sent someone to deepen the drain. The man came and started to work, just before my house. But a few days later he just stopped working and never came back. I still even have the bag of cement he put in my yard. That was the only response I got from anyone, so what am I supposed to do now?” Billy asked.

Billy said while she has been waiting for the authorities to step in, she has hired workers on her own to clean the drain.

“Every month or so I have to be spending about $25 or $30 to clean that drain on my own. If I don’t, water will back up far in my yard. Once I didn’t clean it because I didn’t have the money and I couldn’t pass through the back door of my home because water was there,” Billy said.

She said it was unfair that she had to pay someone to clean the drain since that was the job of the regional corporation. But she said she had little choice until someone helps.

When contacted, a representative of the San Juan/Laventille Regional Corporation said Billy’s report will be investigated immediately.