Farmers walk out of Guave Road in Tucker Valley in Chaguaramas on Monday afternoon after tending their food crops.

Photos: Karla Ramoo

BY SANDRA CHOUTHI

The Housing Development Corporation (HDC) plans to construct this year a $200 million housing project in Tucker Valley, Chaguaramas.

A Ministry of Housing source said five months ago Cabinet approved the middle-and lower-income housing project on 50 acres of land.

“We are using a village concept. The new Carenage Police Station will go there,” the source said.

The Ministry of Housing is now awaiting a certificate of environmental clearance from the Environmental Management Authority (EMA) before construction gets off the ground. Construction is expected to last 18 months.

“We expect it to have minimal environmental impact. We cannot start any construction without getting that CEC. We intend to abide by the law,” the source said.

“Work is expected to start in March. All planning has been going on to get an early start in the dry season.”

The architectural firm for the project is Newel Lewis Broadbridge Associates. Cost of the houses—just under 300 units—will range from between $150,000 and $525,000.

“We’re trying to bring the price of real estate down,” the ministry source said.

A main contractor has not yet been selected as the Ministry of Housing is in the process of finalising that arrangement.

Housing Minister Dr Keith Rowley was unavailable on Tuesday to comment, said Annabelle Brasnell, communications specialist in the Ministry of Housing.

Environmentalist Prof Julian Kenny said he, too, had heard of a housing project intended for Tucker Valley and thinks the idea is “crazy.”

Told that a Housing Ministry official said the environmental impact would be minimal, Kenny said, “They always say this.”

He said the original idea for Chaguaramas was that the whole area be preserved as a national park, with some areas being used for seed production.

“When the original hearings for the plan for Chaguaramas were heard—of course, this was back in the 1970s—there were loud objections to any housing,” Kenny said. “The argument then was they would make some money from upscale housing.”

Kenny, as has former CDA general manager Ian Gianetti, said they have heard of plans to construct two hotels overlooking Macqueripe and both have objected to the idea.

“To me, the thing is not good planning,” Kenny said. “I’m not in terrible support of this.”

He said housing in Tucker Valley will become upscale properties for the “moneyed people,” that another government might decide there’s a need to provide housing for the middle-class and “then the squatters will follow.”

He said those who can afford properties at Bayshore and Flagstaff Hill residences “will play the market like everybody else.”

“The first concern should be for trying to keep (Chaguaramas) to the original thinking and as long as you can,” Kenny said. “Once you get housing in there, there will be another and another.”

He also said Tucker Valley is an important water source for the Water and Sewerage Authority

“If you start doing a lot of housing, it means more run-off and less water into the aquifer.”

About Tucker Valley

Tucker Valley got its original name Quesa from the river that meanders through it beneath a canopy of overhanging bamboo stands.

The dense and lush vegetation along its banks provides a habitat for caimans, howler and capuchin monkeys, herons, ducks, egrets, crabs, turtles and other members of Chaguaramas’ wild life.

The name Tucker Valley came from the owner of the Macqueripe estate that was located in the valley, William Sanger Tucker, born in Exeter, Great Britain. This turn-of-the-century estate produced cocoa, coffee and coconuts.

Chaguaramas

Situated at the northwest corner of Trinidad, Chaguaramas is a 14,572 acre region that includes a peninsula with five offshore islands.

The topography of the peninsula is characterised by 3,000 acres of relatively flat lands with five scenic beachfront areas, dominated by an intricate mountain system of steep slopes and extensive foothills separated by two wide valleys.

The peninsula, a 25-minute drive from Port-of-Spain, has sheltered, natural harbours that are well below the hurricane belt. The peninsula extends five-and-a-half miles from east to west, and three-and-a-half miles from north to south at its widest point. The area of the peninsula is approximately 12,000 acres (4,858 hectares).

Chaguaramas offers a unique opportunity for the development of tourism, leisure and marine related industries. It comprises relatively flat lands incorporating five scenic beachfront areas—all ideally suited for restaurants, shops, leisure and recreational facilities. Coastal areas provide excellent sheltered coves.

The Chaguaramas Development Authority was established by an Act of Parliament in 1972 to administer and co-ordinate the development of the northwestern peninsula in accordance with national objectives, stated the CDA Web site. The CDA, is vested with all the land of the northwest peninsula of Trinidad, including the offshore islands.

A history

The earliest history of Chaguaramas dates back to Saladoid Amerindian occupation. After some 300 years of Spanish rule, the British took possession of Trinidad in 1797. The peninsula’s rich history includes a slave revolt in 1806, and seven years later, in 1813, the invasion of Venezuela from Chacachacare, an island off the Chaguaramas peninsula, led by Venezuelan patriots.

Owing to its strategic, geographic location, the British Government leased Chaguaramas in 1941 to the US government for 99 years for use as a naval base. By 1943, the Chaguaramas naval base was in full operation, and at its peak during World War II, there were some 30,000 resident US troops located in Chaguaramas.

T&T became an independent nation in 1962. After representations, the US government agreed to close the naval base and handed over the peninsula to the people of T&T in 1967.

Source: Chaguaramas Development Authority Web site: http://www.chagdev.com

Houses to replace food crops

Some of the farmers sell their produce on the Western Main Road just outside the gated entrance to Guave Road in Chaguaramas.

A gardener walked out of Guave Road, Chaguaramas, balancing a load of cane, tied with vine, on his black suede hat-covered head. She held a cutlass in her right hand. Her eyes brightened as her weather-beaten face broke into a smile.

She dropped her heavy load at a vegetable stall at Guave Road, which is situated right of the bend between the Kayak Centre at Williams Bay and Pier 1 as one heads west.

Her daughter, who’s not a farmer, was minding the stall that had for sale a huge pumpkin picked only that morning, dasheen, yam, breadfruit, cassava and husked dried coconuts. Complementing the ground provision were sun-ripened oranges and portugals, but those were not grown at the hands of this gardener.

Fifty-two-year-old Ursula Marie Phillip is one of the 83 gardeners the Chaguaramas Development Authority (CDA) is trying to evict from lands that are being actively cultivated in the western peninsula.

Last week, the CDA published the gardeners’ names in the newspapers. According to CDA corporate secretary Kathleen Gittens, that was not the first time the farmers were given notice to vacate land under the CDA’s control, but it was the first time their names were published.

The notice warned farmers like Phillip of legal action being taken against them if they fail to vacate the land—more than 100 acres—on which they have been planting such crops as tomatoes, cauliflower, sweet peppers, ochro, melongene, pumpkin, paw paw, pigeon peas, corn, sugar cane, callaloo bush, cucumbers, sorrel, bodi, tania and other ground provision at least since 1951. The farmers sell a bulk of their produce to Hi-Lo Food Stores and at the Central Market in Port-of-Spain.

Joseph Richardson, interim president of the Guave Road Farmers’ Association, said the CDA stopped maintaining the road about seven years ago and has installed a barricade that is opened only on Fridays and Saturdays from 6 am to 6 pm. Outside of that period, farmers park their vehicles outside the padlocked gate and walk about 600 metres along the dirt road to tend their plots.

Richardson, wearing crop-stained khaki pants fitted into knee-high black garden boots, held two manila folders filled with old and new documents: correspondence to and from the CDA, legal letters, yellowed newspaper articles.

“The CDA put up the gate to stop dumping,” Richardson said.

There were three heaps of industrial and domestic waste just inside the gate along Guave Road.

Richardson read Section 21 of the CDA Act, which stated that a person who occupies any land with the subject of a vesting order under the act, otherwise than with the consent of the authority, is liable to a summary conviction or imprisonment of two years.

He read, too, from a copy of minutes of a February 19, 1988, meeting, which stated that then CDA member, Hammond Noreiga, “informed the Guave Road Farmers’ delegation that the Chaguaramas Development Authority board has decided to recognise the Guave Road Farmers’ Association for agriculture.”

Richardson linked the words, “than with the consent of the authority,” in the CDA Act to the 1988 minutes of the CDA meeting, indicating the latter was tantamount to the farmers’ legitimacy to farm CDA lands.

“We’re farming as usual,” Richardson said. “If they wish to take us to court, fine. If they wish to come and break, fine.”

He said the farmers of Guave Road claimed the CDA wanted the land for recreation for the elite and the wealthy. They suspect the area is targeted for housing.

Farmer Rexford George pointed with one of his three cutlasses to a stick stuck into the ground, the tip of which appeared to have been spray-painted red, and at least two other spots on the right side of Guave Road heading in with similar markings on a bamboo rod and a tree.

Richardson said the area was recently surveyed and the markings appeared to be for housing plots.

Guave Road falls in the Tucker Valley area, said Kathleen Gittens, CDA corporate secretary.

CDA board member Mario Edwards said the Guave Road farmers have been illegally occupying land earmarked for development.

“This year, things are taking off in terms of development. I can’t say what we are going to put there as yet,” Edwards said.

CDA general manager Diane Dumas said the farmers’ names were published because they are not easy to find.

The farmers do not live on the land, but in such areas as L’Anse Mitan in Carenage, Cocorite, Diego Martin and Laventille.

Historically, Dumas said the CDA’s mandate has been to develop the lands of Chaguaramas for eco-friendly purposes, recreation and entertainment.

Dumas said people think of “concrete” when they hear the word development, but the CDA is trying to stay away from that concept.

She said the CDA re-established a park department and has hired as park planner Dr Jesma McFarlane, whose job is to determine how Chaguaramas is to develop and function, identify trails and rare flora and fauna and encourage their growth.

Ian Gianetti, former CDA chairman and a resident of Macqueripe, Chaguaramas, said a housing development “will destroy the bloody area.”

Tucker Valley has the Chaguaramas Golf Course, Edith Falls, Covigne Nutmeg & River Trail, St Chad’s Church Historical site, CADP Agricultural Project and the “Bamboo Cathedral,” as it is commonly called.

The flora of Tucker Valley includes bamboo, yellow poui, pink poui, hog plum, cedar, mahogany, yellow olivier, bois flot, immortelle, purple heart, crappo, locust.

A farmer bundles sugar cane for sale.

Big tourism plans for peninsula

Chaguaramas is recognised as a special economic zone within the larger T&T economy.

The Tourism Master Plan positions Chaguaramas as one of the main anchors of tourism in Trinidad. The marine topography in certain areas of the south shore is particularly suited to large deep-hulled ships and enhances the opportunities for cruise tourism.

The region is designated as a national park reflecting the rich endowment of ecological, historical and archeological resources.

Chaguaramas has had a series of local concept plans, as to adapt to the changes of the world business and tourism trends. In 1999, a Chaguaramas local concept plan was prepared, this plan was prepared within the context of a national conceptual development plan. The purpose of the local concept plan was to outline a long-term vision for the Chaguaramas area and to define the opportunities for private sector investment. Among the objectives of the plan were: 

To enhance and improve local and international tourism facilities in the area.

To encourage the development of resort and other housing in appropriate locations

To improve employment and business opportunities particularly in the marine and shipping industries.

In its tourism master plan, the Government has identified Chaguaramas as the resort anchor which is recognised in the plan’s vision:

To develop Chaguaramas and the offshore islands as a first class resort destination catering to both the domestic and international market

To preserve the integrity of the environment by developing an uplands national park for the enjoyment and education of the people of T&T.

To encourage a diversity of economic activities such as resort-tourism development, marine development, commercial support facilities, housing, industry and agriculture.

To develop the tourism aspects of the yachting and marine sector by positioning Chaguaramas as a boating destination, providing full service marinas.

(SC)