Freeport residents say ‘no’ to COVID death storage facility in area

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Residents of Beaucarro Village in St Mary’s, Freeport turned out in their numbers yesterday for an urgent village meeting to voice their concerns against a planned facility to store the bodies of those who died from COVID-19.

The residents are even threatening to form a human barricade if need be to halt operations at the makeshift morgue on January 1, 2022, when it is set to be open.

Last Saturday, the Chief Medical Officer Dr Roshan Parasram confirmed a mass storage facility would be established in Freeport to store the bodies of people who died from COVID-19.

Yesterday’s meeting which was hosted by the concerned residents kicked off at 5 pm saw Couva South MP Rudranath Indarsingh, who was invited by residents, saying the plan was never brought before any statutory meeting for statutory approval by the Couva Tabaquite Talparo Regional Corporation.

Indarsingh also added that there was no public consultation done.

Speaking with the Guardian Media, Etwaria Gyandass, 77, who has been living in the area since birth, said a morgue to store COVID-19 bodies in the residential area is not welcomed.

“I do not want this in our village. I living in this village for 77 years and it never have this thing before. Why are we supposed to allow this in this time? We don’t want it. We want the Government to do something about it.

“My son live right in the back of the property they have identified and it don’t have proper drainage. When rain fall the drainage not good. All the water going in he yard. The children does be playing and sometimes it have snake, alligator all kind of thing running in the back there,” she added.

Another resident Daniel Ezekiel Greenidge, 80, said he is in shock to learn that a private compound will be transformed into a cold-storage facility for Covid-19 victims.

“On Thursday night a dead come right in front of my house. I thought it was my sister, she is 92 but is people who renting dead inside from Covid-19. This evening I get the message that the man dead from Covid-19 and I shock. Now I hearing about this thing I more shock,” Greenidge said.

“We don’t want it. We don’t want it. We will start protesting from Christmas because we don’t want it. We not taking it just so. This is serious,” Greenidge added.

Greenidge and other residents said no one from the Ministry of Health or the Environmental Management Authority came into the area to hold any consultation with them.

Resident Siewdath Bahal said he is currently in charge of getting a petition signed and his goal is to get 5,000 signatures over the next two days.

“We are trying to gather the entire community to have this petition signed. We estimate over 5,000 signatures to start with. So far we are getting support not only from Beaucarro but from Mc Bean, Calcutta, St Mary’s and Bank Village.”

“We are saying ‘No.’ We will clip it in the bud. We don’t want any one of them coming in here. There are alot of other areas including State lands all over but not in here,” he added.

Indarsingh said he has already contacted a few attorneys and plans to take legal action if need be.

“Why Beaucarro, where’s the feasibility study, why not any other part of Trinidad?”

Indarsingh added residents are prepared to go the distance, including forming a human barricade to put a stop to the facility. “If we have to go through the legal means and serve agencies with pre-action protocol letters to get the desired answers it will be done.

“And if the government is hell-bent about opening this on January 1, 2022 we are indeed setting the stage for a people’s confrontation, the formation of a human barricade on the said day,” Indarsingh added.

Guardian Media has been reporting, exclusively, about how the high number of daily COVID deaths has impacted State morgues and even funeral homes.

Earlier this week, the president of the Funeral Practitioners Association, Keith Belgrove, told Guardian Media that while the Freeport site is a partnership between the Ministry of Health and the association, the group will be the ones managing it.