Sunday, October 18 2009

The photograph published on page five of Friday’s issue of Newsday of assembly line concrete latrines constructed at Ramsaran Trace, Cunupia for use by Chinese indentured labourers employed by Beijing Liujian Construction Corporation to work on Trinidad and Tobago Government projects pose a health threat both to the Chinese workers and residents of Cunupia and surrounding districts.

Not only do the Chinese workers live in sub-human conditions in buildings constructed without any planning approval, prior or otherwise, of the Town and Country Planning Division (TCPD) as well as that of the Tunapuna/Piarco Regional Corporation, but that Town and Country Planning reportedly has not taken any action against anyone in connection with the unauthorised construction of the buildings. Indeed, it appears as though only the Tunapuna/Piarco Regional Corporation has sought to take any action against the company which erected the buildings.

On Thursday, councillor for St Helena/Warrenville Shama Deonarine protested not only the inaction by the TCPD but that documents submitted were for a warehouse office and not for living quarters. Shocked at what she saw following a tour of the quarters she commented on there being six Chinese workers to a room, the unsanitary conditions of the toilets, kitchen and compound, enough reasons Deonarine argued “to close down the place.” There are no private toilets and washroom facilities and the toilets are holes in a long, flat concrete strip. Adding insult to the Chinese labourers is that the toilet and bath areas are wide open.

The clear indifference of the TCPD, along with the decidedly snail-like approach of the Ministry of Housing, Planning and the Environment, is disturbing. Even the Tunapuna/Piarco Regional Corporation is not completely blameless as it has allowed itself to be tied up by bureaucratic red tape, while the workers are subjected to inhuman conditions.

Even as a senior official of the Ministry of Housing confirmed the body was awaiting drawing plans from the TCPD, councillor Deonarine revealed that “in reviewing the files...we realised the documents were for a warehouse office.”

Should the Ministry of Housing, Planning and the Environment, which should have had access to not dissimilar documents, not have been made aware of this, say by the regional corporation? What did the Ministry mean when it issued a statement to Newsday, through its Director of Corporate Communications, that the Town and Country Planning Division was conducting an investigation based on a directive from its line Minister, Dr Emily Gaynor Dick-Forde?

While the Chinese workers have been effectively debased and many of them are being sent back to China, after protesting not having been paid wages for two months plus bad living conditions, the Ministry of Housing, Planning and the Environment is still pussyfooting on an issue which is clearly hurting Trinidad and Tobago’s image. Had firm and quick action been taken a long time ago the scandal of sub-standard living conditions for the Chinese workers would either not have arisen or would have effectively been dealt with at an early stage.

And, even as we welcome the interest shown in the plight of the Chinese labourers by leaders of some of the country’s major trade unions, and their appeal for something to be done by officialdom to put an end to this outrage, nevertheless, what has been clearly lacking in all of their public statements has been any appeal to their unions’ members to emulate the work ethic of the Chinese workers and have a high level of productivity.