Ot­to Car­ring­ton

Se­nior Re­porter

ot­to.car­ring­ton@cnc3.co.tt

Fif­teen fam­i­lies at La Glo­ria Road in Mun­do Nue­vo, Tal­paro, may soon be cut off from the rest of T&T, as the on­ly ac­cess bridge to their homes is at risk of col­laps­ing due to its de­te­ri­o­rat­ing con­di­tion.

Res­i­dents said the com­mu­ni­ty re­lied heav­i­ly on agri­cul­ture, and the fail­ing bridge was hin­der­ing their abil­i­ty to earn a liv­ing. Res­i­dent Farouk Man­soor said res­i­dents felt they were “liv­ing on a thin thread.”

He said, “The bridge on La Glo­ria Road serves as a life­line for at least 15 fam­i­lies, but it’s rapid­ly de­te­ri­o­rat­ing. Any strong flood could cause it to col­lapse, leav­ing them com­plete­ly strand­ed.

“The bridge’s abut­ments on both sides have fall­en in­to the riv­er, and the planks on its sur­face are ter­mite-in­fest­ed and rot­ting, cre­at­ing an un­sta­ble patch­work that bare­ly sup­ports ve­hi­cles.”

Res­i­dents de­scribed the sit­u­a­tion as un­sus­tain­able and dan­ger­ous, with the fail­ing struc­ture block­ing ac­cess to es­sen­tial ser­vices and util­i­ties. They said they felt they were liv­ing on bor­rowed time, re­ly­ing on the “grace of God” to keep the bridge in­tact through the rainy sea­son.

Man­soor added, “There’s a six-inch Wa­ter and Sew­er­age Au­thor­i­ty main cross­ing the bridge that has rup­tured mul­ti­ple times due to bridge move­ments, ren­der­ing the wa­ter sup­ply null and void.”

The bridge falls un­der the purview of the Cou­va/Tabaquite/Tal­paro Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion (CT­TRC), and res­i­dents say they have con­tact­ed the cor­po­ra­tion, which has ac­knowl­edged the sit­u­a­tion. How­ev­er, the CT­TRC said al­though they were aware of the bridge’s con­di­tion, an of­fi­cial as­sess­ment was re­quired be­fore re­pairs could be­gin.

Res­i­dents have al­so reached out to La Hor­quet­ta/Tal­paro MP Fos­ter Cum­mings re­gard­ing the is­sue.