MP for Caroni East Dr Tim Gopeesingh has bashed the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) for granting a Certificate of Clearance (CEC) to a company allegedly dumping human waste into a ravine. The residents in the small Kelly Village community yesterday staged a placard protest, calling for waste treatment company Ragbar Company Ltd to stop the alleged fecal dumping in the nearby Macezine Ravine.
Gopeesingh, who met with the residents yesterday, said he contacted EMA chairman Dr Allan Bachan earlier this year when residents came to him for help. He said while Bachan promised to investigate the allegations of dumping, the CEC was granted the next day.
“I have been working with the team of residents for the last year-and-a-half to no avail. I have called (the EMA) in the presence of the residents, the chairman of the EMA on a particular day and on the next day he issued the CEC to the company,” Goopeesingh said. “He issued the CEC after there were complaints by the residents.”
The residents said aside from the stench and the possible health hazards, the roads and small bridge were also damaged by the constant movement of heavy trucks. The company, owned by Ryan Ragbar, operates out of Curepe, but they purchased the land in Herrera Trace, Caroni, to establish a waste treatment plant. Though the CEC notes that the plant was expected to be completed by February 2014, to date no major construction work has been done on the property.
Gopeesingh said subsequent to that CEC approval, he made several attempts to contact Bachan, but has not been successful. According to the EMA Web site, CEC 4049/2013 was granted on July 6, 2014. Ragbar and Company applied for clearance on October 30, 2013. “It shows that the bureaucracy of the system is extremely stifling, even a minister of government cannot get things done,” Gopeesingh said.
One resident, Deochand Harrichan, said the affected community got together and had the water tested by Cariri. He said those tests showed that the ravine directly behind the business contained elevated levels of fecal matter. “We are saying that the EMA should investigate and identify the source and stop it.”
Ragbar denies dumping
The residents also claimed that they have been threatened with violence and physical harm whenever they raise concerns about the matter with the workers or the owner of the company.