People who still live in Emmerton/Chapman Lane, The City, next to the Bridgetown Sewage Treatment Plant, say they have been given a raw deal by Government.
While some of their counterparts were relocated to Barbarees Hill, St Michael, ten years ago, some of those remaining said they could not understand why they were left behind even though they were still suffering from the pungent sewage emissions.
They vented yesterday outside of the Supreme Court Complex after the class action lawsuit they brought against Government was adjourned.
The suit was filed 13 years ago by 169 residents against the Barbados Water Authority (BWA). They were successful last year in getting compensation from the BWA for the pain and suffering and disruption of their lives caused by the sewage plant.
However, those who still live there said they were supposed to be relocated by the Urban Development Commission (UDC) but that had never materialised.
Sixty-year-old Brenda Hinkson, who lives directly opposite the plant, said she could not take it anymore.
“They say that the side I on is for Urban (Urban Development Commission) to deal with, but Urban ain’t do nothing with the houses down there. We still got to stand down there and take that scent. I got two grandchildren living with me and last week I had to send them by their mother in Christ Church due to the sewage smelling again,” said Hinkson, who has been living in Emmerton since 1998.
Kenneth McCollin complained that the houses built at Barbarees Hill for them were given to other people “from all ’bout Barbados”.
“They allocate the houses for the people at Emmerton and Chapman Lane and then they bring in all kinds of people from all over the place, likeSt Philip, and put them in the houses. They had a house up there for my uncle and he died, and they give the house to somebody else who is not from out here.
People in Chapman Lane that were supposed to get them houses dead and gone. Chapman Lane people ain’t get the houses and that is why we still in Chapman Lane suffering. That is not nice,” he told the DAILY NATION.
As to the sewage plant, the elderly man, who has been living in Chapman Lane since the 1970s, said “it does humbug me too”.
Ulric King, 74, said he had to find refuge whenever the plant was having problems.
“When the sewage kick up nobody can’t stand down in Chapman Lane. It is bad.”
Lydia Albert questioned why all of the residents were not relocated.
“Have they dsicriminated against us because we from Chapman Lane?” she asked.
She charged that the residents were treated badly in the first place when Government decided to build a sewage plant in the midst of a close-knit neighbourhood. (MB)
