By AZARD ALI Sunday, December 30 2012

BOTH nature and the deliberate acts of man have conspired to change the landscape of south Trinidad, for better or for worse.

Not many people know that nestling in a small clearing on the fringes of forested Guapo Village, near La Brea, there are pristine and beautiful small ponds in a grassy landscape, surrounded by a thick growth of trees. The various shades of green are borne out in the natural landscape, shaped out so bountifully and reflected in the crystal clear water of the ponds, against a backdrop of a scattering of residents’ homes. However, most of the beauty can only be seen from the air.

Newsday’s lensman Anil Rampersad captured in photos, the changing landscape in South, during an aerial tour of the Southland in November, courtesy the National Infrastructure Development Company Limited. The media was taken on the tour by helicopter for a viewing of the route of the controversial Debe to Mon Desir section of the highway to Point Fortin.

The media boarded the Ministry of National Security helicopter at Camden, Couva, and as it ascended to 9000 feet in the air, the sand pit in Claxton Bay was most evident from the skies. Excavation has left deep and jagged scars on the earth’s surface. Government had earlier this year ordered the area off limits to truckers, when a part of the sandpit collapsed and threatened the Claxton Bay roadway.

The growing demand for housing in the city of San Fernando was also reflected in the cluster of houses built along the eastern coastline between Pointe-a-Pierre and King’s Wharf, overlooking the Gulf of Paria. Standing majestically in the background, is the Administrative Complex constructed on Chancery Lane, but which was refurbished and declared open by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar on Friday, as a new wing of the San Fernando General Hospital.

The National Academy for the Performing Arts (south campus), adds to the changing landscape in the city, along the Rienzi Kirton Highway. The building, geared to boost the art form in south Trinidad, is designed in the shape of a musical note.