Members of the Save Our Orange Grove Committee, who fear residents will lose Orange Grove Savannah to a major government sports upgrade project, are warning the Aranguez Savannah, San Juan, seems destined to suffer the same fate. However, they intend to keep up their fight to maintain the savannah as a “green space” until they get answers and a halt to the Tacarigua project.
Dr Carol James, who retired as a board member of the Environmental Management Committee (EMA) in 2008, and is now a member of the Orange Grove Committee, said yesterday a project for the Aranguez Savannah, which is used by San Juan residents and members of the public for cultural and sporting programmes and recreation, is also listed on the EMA’s database of areas approved for Certificates of Environmental Clearance (CEC), which suggests some major development work may be planned for the land.
She said while the database showed an absence of an approved CEC for the proposed Sports Company of T&T’s (Sportt) Aquatic Centre at the Orange Grove Savannah, which they are protesting over, it clearly listed one for a project at the Aranguez Savannah. The site lists the Sportt project thus: “To conduct land development activities, for the establishment of an indoor sports facility at Aranguez Savannah, San Juan.”
Looking at their own issue, James said members of the committee feared they would be denied access to the Orange Grove Savannah, despite assurances from Sport Minister Anil Roberts in a September 3 meeting that they would have access. She said their request for a CEC, which would have stopped the project, was generally ignored by the EMA.
“We sent a letter on October 18 requesting the CEC. Then on November 11 we filed an inquiry about the EMA’s lack of acknowledgement of the letter. We got an acknowledgement of this letter and nothing more,” she added. She said the Sportt project, a multi-sport complex, would occupy the entire 39 acres of the Tacarigua Savannah and already a fence has gone up around a part of it.
Asked if residents would not be allowed to enter, via a gate, to use the new facility after the project was completed, James was uncertain. Giving an example, she said the grounds at the University of the West Indies Sports and Physical Education Centre, St Augustine, were previously used by residents of Monte Grande before it was taken for the new facility. Asked if residents could no longer access it, she said: “We have to get permission.”
James said residents of Aranguez Savannah and members of the public who used it would experience the same pain. The week before the October 21 local government elections, St Augustine MP Prakash Ramadhar said the project would not go on at the Orange Grove Savannah until consultation was held on its future. Yesterday, however, James said work was going on full speed ahead.
The T&T Guardian contacted Ramadhar, via his cellphone, yesterday but a female voice answered, saying he was unavailable and offered to help. Told about the issue, the woman said Communications Minister Gerald Hadeed had been appointed to answer questions on the matter.
Hadeed said the Orange Grove matter was discussed in Cabinet and an agreement was reached that the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs through Roberts and his team at the Sportt Company would embark on an educational drive concerning the project. He said in that programme, residents would be called to come and view the entire proposal. Hadeed said it appeared some people were misinformed about a small area designated for the aquatic centre project.
He added: “They are misinterpreting this to be part and parcel of the savannah. They are misunderstanding where it is. “We are arranging to allow people to have an entire review of the project, so they will be able to make a differentiation between what it actually is and what some people are saying,” Hadeed said, stressing on the “some.” “They will be able to see for themselves whether there are contraventions as some are saying.”
Hadeed said, worldwide, major projects have been stopped because a “handful” of people said they did not want it. “We live in an 18th century society,” he said.