RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA
rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Bar­rack­pore res­i­dents are call­ing on the En­vi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment Au­thor­i­ty to in­ves­ti­gate the il­le­gal dis­pos­al of petro­chem­i­cal waste, which has now spread to the South Oropouche Riv­er caus­ing res­i­dents to fall ill.

Res­i­dent Ramdeo Ram­sawak said since the start of the month, the stench of petro­chem­i­cal waste has been lin­ger­ing in the vil­lage, caus­ing res­i­dents to ex­pe­ri­ence nau­sea, vom­it­ing, dizzi­ness and coughs.

"This is poi­son­ing us. Two days ago, my son Kelvin who is 22 years old start­ed to vom­it as well. We are un­com­fort­able and can­not stay in our own house," he added.

More than 50 peo­ple are af­fect­ed by the stench, which is al­leged to have flowed out the com­pound of a waste dis­pos­al com­pa­ny.

Footage sup­plied to Guardian Me­dia showed pe­tro­le­um-based prod­ucts scat­tered in the yard of the com­pa­ny's com­pound. A white sub­stance flowed from the peep­holes of the drain in­to the gov­ern­ment drain. Waste was al­so be­ing burnt on the com­pound.

The grass on the pe­riph­ery of the com­pa­ny had dried down and Ram­sawak said some of his crops, in­clud­ing co­conut trees, have been ad­verse­ly af­fect­ed.

"We are fed up with this. I told the neigh­bours that we can­not take this smell. It is a high chem­i­cal they’re let­ting down in the riv­er. When the floods came that was when it got worse," Ram­sawak said.

Mean­while, the pres­i­dent of the South Oropouche River­ine Flood Ac­tion Group, Ed­ward Mood­ie, called on the EMA to in­ves­ti­gate.

"There is en­vi­ron­men­tal con­t­a­m­i­na­tion in the veg­e­ta­tion. Re­cent­ly a cow ate the con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed grass and died. For weeks res­i­dents have been com­plain­ing about this. With heavy rains, the waste wash­es in­to the drains and rivers. They be­lieve dur­ing the wee hours of the morn­ing the tanker is open and the prod­uct is al­lowed to leak in­to the drains to wash away," Mood­ie said.

He al­so called on ma­jor oil com­pa­nies to fol­low up with waste dis­pos­al com­pa­nies to de­ter­mine where the waste is dumped af­ter clean-up oc­curs.

"We want these com­pa­nies to do an au­dit on where their by-prod­uct goes and how it is dis­posed of, based on the con­trac­tu­al oblig­a­tions. So many waste dis­pos­al com­pa­nies are il­le­gal­ly dump­ing be­cause that is a cheap way to get­ting rid of the waste. We had an is­sue in Cara­pal, two months ago where waste was be­ing dumped in­to a pit and when the rains came this cre­at­ed a ma­jor spill," Mood­ie said.

"We want the EMA to say what is the right waste dis­pos­al method that should be used for the par­tic­u­lar waste. These prod­ucts have a detri­men­tal ef­fect on the flo­ra and fau­na in the rivers. The peo­ple who de­pend on this for a liveli­hood are suf­fer­ing as well- these crab catch­ers, cas­cadu­ra har­vesters and oys­ter­catch­ers," he added.

Guardian Me­dia con­tact­ed the com­pa­ny who ad­vised us to send an email.

The EMA al­so ac­knowl­edged re­ceipt of ques­tions posed by Guardian Me­dia and promised to is­sue a com­ment lat­er to­day.

Guardian Me­dia will bring fur­ther up­dates once these re­spons­es are forth­com­ing.