St Lucy folk cry for relief

Some residents in Hope Road and River Bay, St Lucy are lamenting longstanding issues in the parish – slow road repairs, discoloured water and the pungent odour from the sargassum seaweed.

Tired of little to no progress, they are demanding immediate action to rectify these issues.

Rawdon Broomes, who lives in River Bay Road, said the road needed to be repaired immediately, noting repairs started last year and were taking too long to be completed. He added that the dust from the road often left his vehicle chalk white when he drove through it.

“You have to put up with the dust. Every day you have to be washing your vehicle, especially when the rain fall and the marl stick up all underneath the vehicle and tyres,” he said.

He also said the pungent smell from the sargassum seaweed didn’t bother him but it was strong in the air when it was being carried away.

Another resident in River Bay Road, who asked not to be named, said he didn’t have reason to complain about the roadworks because issues were bound to arise when these things occurred.

Seaweed

He said he was not impacted by the odour from the sargassum seaweed, except when the rain fell heavily. Additionally, he said some big pick-up trucks usually collected the seaweed once a month.

“Some trucks come and carry it out on Saturdays and Sundays once a month. I live down here all my life and down here was not always like this with so much seaweed. They had something called spring tiding when the sea cleaned itself and it would come and wash away all the seaweed. You never saw it in such a big amount as today,” the man said.

Hope Road resident Keisha Griffith expressed concern about the length of time it took to get everything completed on the road, also noting that road was very narrow and it appeared as if two vehicles could not pass at the same point.

She also pointed to flooding caused by the structure of the road when light rainfall recently caused it to become impassable.

Griffith also complained that dust from the road affected her vehicle and her health. “Our vehicles are being compromised. You wash them today and then they’re white again today. Health-wise, it’s concerning because as you can see, my eyes are swollen because of the dust and my allergies.”

She said the issue with discoloured water was a work in progress, acknowledging efforts to have pipes in the parish changed out.

However, not having clean water led her to constantly replace the inners of her toilet and change fillers in her pipes once a week. She is even considering replacing her washing machine because of all the damage it sustained.

“Sometimes the water is swamp water and it carries a rusty odour. Sometimes you’re even taking a risk bathing with it.

“I don’t think the authorities fully appreciate what we are going through. It goes beyond drinking water. Yes, they have given us a concession of $30 off on the water bill but it goes deeper than that. There’s so many other ways that it has affected us,” she said.

Another resident in the same area said she had to constantly clean her vehicle when she drove through the white marl road.

“I had to get two washdowns of the vehicle by the engine, ’cause the dust just keep on going and going. I can’t wash my car today and it look decent tomorrow. It will look like it come through a quarry,” she said.

The woman also said flooding was a new issue and blamed it on how the road was built.

She also lamented the smell of the seaweed and said she did not know what could be done with it but hoped that issue would be rectified soon.

She said some days the water was normal and others it would switch from white to brown, leaving her unable to wash or cook as she normally would.

The woman said she was forced to buy large bottles of water to use for cooking and drinking, which came at an additional expense as she bought five large bottles every week. (AJ)

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