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50 years wait for waterfront
... but Sando must hold on a while longer

By SHELDON OSBORNE

For more than 50 years, the people of San Fernando have been nurturing a dream.

The waterfront of the southern city is avoided by most of the city’s residents, as over the years it has become a place for all sorts of questionable activities.

Only persons who need to take a bus or use the recently-relocated maxi-taxi hub venture into the area, and most of them do so with some anxiety as the area has become a haven for vagrants, prostitutes, pipers, pickpockets and muggers.

Anyone passing through the area is greet-ed with pot-holed roads, piles of garbage, abandoned buildings, both public and private, and in some places, the sight and unbearable stench of human waste.

Yet, the area is home to a large fish depot, the fish market, an abandoned abattoir, several fishermen’s huts, some seedy-looking restaurants and bars, and a newly-refurbished public building (the old post office) now being used as a vendor’s mall.

Member of Parliament for the area and former South Chamber of Commerce President Diane Seukeran told TnT Mirror that efforts to beautify and develop the San Fernando waterfront area began over half a century ago.

With the closure of the railway, many acres of land along the waterfront became available, and the civic-minded among the city’s burgesses began to lobby their council and the central government for a proper port and waterfront park.

According to MP Seukeran, their efforts bore little fruit: “It is an old dream of San Fernandians, but to date (very little has been done).”

She added that many surveys have been done over the years: “As Chamber President, I called a committee and lobbied for this, but efforts were hampered by the typical problems in those parts of South Trinidad where land meets sea.

“There is an erosion problem; part of the old railway line is now under water, plus there are other pressing issues which have been given priority, such as the traffic problem.”

The MP also told Mirror that any development of the area would now fall under the newly-formed National Infrastructure Development Company.

San Fernando’s waterfront - 01

Once a hub of economic activity, this part of
San Fernando’s waterfront area looks more
like a ghost town.

San Fernando’s waterfront - 02

The waterfront.

San Fernando’s waterfront - 03

Known as the “Rodriguez Building”, the former
Post Office is now home to a new vendor’s
mall, the only positive development
in the area to date.

San Fernando’s waterfront - 04

Would you buy your meat here? The San
Fernando Abattoir is immaculately clean,
however, the surrounding area reeks of
garbage, fish entrails, and human waste.

When asked if the South Chamber is still actively lobbying for improvements to the San Fernando waterfront, Seukeran said there was a need for all San Fernandians, including the business community, to adopt a “more holistic view”, and added: “The South Chamber seems to have lost its way.”

San Fernando Mayor Ian Atherly echoed Seukeran’s sentiments: “We need it urgently and we need to do something, but my understanding is that the waterfront is not a priority at this time.”

Atherly envisions hotels, a marina, waterfront parks, and a deep water harbour, but said he also understands the need for urgency in ridding the southern city of traffic congestion.

He proposed that government share some of the burden of such a complex development with the private sector.

“If given the opportunity, San Fernando’s business sector would be more than willing to get involved in parts of the project,” he said.

Atherly assured Mirror that the idea for the redevelopment of the waterfront has not been scrapped, but because finding solutions to the city’s traffic woes have been given top priority, it was difficult to say when work would start on the waterfront.

Meanwhile, the citizens of San Fernando, especially those who live and work in the area, can only wait and hope that it won’t take another 50 years.
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