With the elections just days away, Plastic City residents say they have yet to see a presidential candidate in their area and it seems as if the “jetty” has been forgotten.
When Stabroek News visited the squatter settlement at the Best Village foreshore, Radica Ramdass, 21, who has lived there for 20 years, said she wants to relocate her young family but cannot afford to do so.
Plastic City, which has no electricity or potable water or any other service, was reportedly so named because plastic was the main building material used in the original ‘houses’ there.
Ramdass is appealing to the Ministry of Housing to provide her with a house lot and has promised to use her meagre earnings to farm the land and to boost her overall living standards.
She applied for a house lot over a year ago but states that it “is a royal run-around to get a house lot, ‘come back, go back’ all the time.” She said she is frustrated as this not only wastes her time but her money.
The mother of two also lamented that every time the sea water level rises, the community floods and everyone is at risk for waterborne diseases, especially children. Large piles of garbage wash up on the shore during the spring tide in addition to overflowing pit latrines, which cause illnesses that require costly trips to the hospitals.
“We children nah got no convenience and when spring tide come dem got to walk in the mud to go school and mess up dem skin. Sometimes dem get sick, sick bad from cold or wring worm on dem skin,” she explained.
Ramdass said that she cannot cultivate a kitchen garden because of the high sodium content in the soil. She noted that during her childhood, she had farmed with her parents. “A we can’t even juk a plant cause the salt water does kill am it just so sad, sad.
A want plant bad, bad,
meh like planting,” she added. Ramdass said she wants betterment for her children who have grown up in the slums of Plastic City, and she hopes the government can help them to improve their lives.
Krishna, 33, is unable to work at times because of an infection that he has on his left foot, which he says is as a result of being in his waterlogged yard. His wife, Pinky Ganga, 27, complained that it is hard to send their children to school because of her husband’s illness.
She also told this newspaper that the family is willing to move out of the slum for the sakes of her children but at the same time she acknowledged that if they are allocated a house lot she can only pay for it in instalments. She said that she wants to see the presidential candidates addressing their plight, which she described as the plight of the poor people and she added that it should not be left unheard.
Kenneth Fordyce, meanwhile, said his mother was never offered a house lot but she is willing to move from the deplorable conditions they are living under. Residents said they are forced to live in Plastic City because they cannot afford better.
In July last year, Stabroek News had highlighted the plight of residents which saw Minister of Housing and Water Irfaan Ali responding with assurances that government had a “comprehensive plan” for Plastic City. To date, residents said they are still to be informed of the plan and to see developmental changes in their lives.
