For
the purposes of this Study, East Port of Spain is defined as that part of
the Study Area lying east of the St. Ann's River, its perimeter to the north
and east being Lady Young Road and on the South Beetham Highway. It straddles
the administrative areas of the Port of Spain City Corporation and the San
Juan / Laventille Regional Corporation. It
includes five main settlements each with overlapping neighbourhoods that in
the process of community-centered
rejuvenation and regeneration the communities will identify. These settlements
are:
·
Belmont (upper and lower) embracing the north west sector.
·
Morvant nestled in the east sector and fringed by Lady
Young Road on the east.
·
Laventille lies between Belmont and Morvant accessed
from Belmont in the main via St. Barb's Road with Laventille Road running
through this settlement from Piccadilly Street on the west to Morvant on the East.
·
Beetham stretching the length of the southern fringe across
the Priority Bus Route from Laventille.
·
Sea Lots though outside of the physically defined area
lies to the south west of Beetham to which it has very strong historical human
settlement connections as it also does to Laventille.
The
areas to the north of Lady Young Road (Mon Repos, Never Dirty, Romain Lands
and Marie Road) have been included elsewhere in this report (see section 11)
as it is felt that the development problems and issues in these areas are
more characteristic of the other hillside areas (e.g. Maraval, Dundonald Hill)
where development is still expanding and also because it is distinctly separated
from East Port of Spain by the Lady Young Road.
In
1990, the total population of the area was around 71,500 representing around
55%of the total Greater Port of Spain population. The number of households increased during the 1980s although the
population declined. In particular,
the number of households increased in the hilly areas above Belmont and neighbouring
Gonzales and in Picton and Eastern Quarry of Laventille.
An
examination of up to date aerial photography indicates little potential for
new housing, or for any other form of development in East Port of Spain. In short, the area is at capacity. It is noteworthy that the vacant sites identified
in the 1973 Planning Study for the areas were developed during the 1980s.
Virtually
the entire area is hilly – the only exceptions are Belmont proper and lower
Gonzales, lower Laventille along the Eastern Main and Old St. Joseph Road.,
Beetham and Sea Lots. Settlement has
occurred throughout the area with over 63% occurring on slopes steeper than
1:6. The area is predominantly residential
with no major employment or commercial areas except those adjacent to the
Eastern Main Road. The distribution
of schools and churches is widespread but there are few health or recreational
facilities.
The
area is the heartland of the panyards, which traditionally was and to some
extent still is community-based. The most famous of the community-based steelbands
is Desperadoes atop Picton Hill where they have built a new complex which
combined with the historic Fort Picton, the RC Fatima Shrine and the artistically
decorated WASA tanks and reservoirs provide one of the best vantage points
across the city .
This
suggests the possibility of Picton Hill becoming an organised cultural development
focus. Much of the development in
the western sections of Laventille has occurred in defunct quarries that previously
supplied aggregates for the construction of the city.
There
is little recent data to describe the characteristics of the Study Area. In 1973, one quarter of the housing was described
as in ‘poor’ condition, and a further 20% as ‘fair’. It is probable that this proportion will have
decreased due to the gradual upgrading by existing householders and the low
incidence of new housing. The great
majority of households relied on standpipes and pit latrines; conversely virtually
all had electricity. In 1973, over 70% of households relied on standpipes.
This
proportion is likely to have decreased but much of the upper central part
of Laventille has little in the way of a water distribution system. Proper sewerage was confined to lower Belmont,
Morvant, Success Village and Picton / Clifton.
Elsewhere
pit latrines are ubiquitous; these can operate successfully when there is
little water usage but problems arise when house connections are introduced.
In many areas, there is no proper drainage system and reliance is placed upon
crudely dug earth conduits which frequently become blocked and overflow onto
the tracks and roads. The hilly nature
of the area however prevents flooding. The
main exception is the low-lying Beetham area where flooding does occur.
The
road network in the area is fairly extensive and most properties have road
access. This varies considerably in
quality from good quality surfaced roads, through partially paved lanes to
unpaved tracks. Low quality, newer
properties on the hillsides are accessible only by means of steps cut into
the hillside. In some areas, e.g.
Upper Belmont, these have been properly engineered and concreted. There is little organised public transport
in the area and reliance on licensed and unofficial 'PH' taxis is almost total.
The
area has a wide range of land tenures from individually owned small plots,
planned NHA neighbourhoods, ‘chattel’ rentals (renting of private plots) and
squatting. In 1973, around 25-35%
of households were squatting and 40-50% were chattel rentals; most of the
remainder were owner occupied. The
main squatting settlements are Sogren Trace, Morvant Old Road, Alexis Street,
Picton Quarry, Eastern Quarries, Upper Leon Street and Beetham Phase IV. Many of these are old-established communities
where the housing has been improved and redeveloped over time. They all involve hillside housing.
In
1973, unemployment in the area was around 20%.
The current rate is probably somewhat higher given that in the mid-1990s,
unemployment in St Anns as a whole was 20%. It is noteworthy that unemployment in St Anns
did not decline in the 1990s as occurred in the rest of the Study Area. There is no information on employment within
the area although anecdotal evidence suggests the following:
·
Little
locally based employment.
·
The
majority of those employed work in Port of Spain proper. A rough estimate is that this area provides
15-20% of employment in Port of Spain.
·
A
high level of under-employment with a high preponderance of unskilled and
casual jobs.
In
general, there has been a lack of concerted government activity in the area.
This is manifest in the poor condition of many roads, a high number
of unpaved and un-engineered tracks, a low incidence of household water connections,
few health or recreational facilities, and, paradoxically, by the high level
of squatting and other low income housing which does not conform to official
standards. Community groups complain about the lack of
government involvement and investment and the apparent unwillingness to assist
them in progressing development initiatives that they have identified. In
particular, they fear that their enthusiasm and local support will evaporate
unless concrete results are achieved.
Nevertheless
government activity in the area has not been entirely absent. Flats and housing have been provided, electricity
coverage is virtually total, many roads are paved and some of the major ones
are in good condition, coverage of schools is widespread. The 1995 ‘Land Regularisation’ Act identifies
several squatting locations and schedules them for eventual regularisation.
Three of these are currently being progressed – Alexis Street, Sogren
Trace and Upper Leon Street, Success Village.
There
are also several community development initiatives by the INPPC, the Community
Development Division, and the National Commission for Self Help and the Unit
for Poverty Eradication and Equity Building.
Some of these initiatives are funded by the Community Development Fund
(from the IDB).
These
initiatives tend to be small-scale infrastructure improvements (e.g. landscaping)
or geared towards instigating community development activities (e.g. after
school programmes) and encouraging private sector involvement. These initiatives operate through some of the
large number of community based organisations (CBOs) operating in the area.
Belmont - embracing the north west sector and containing
the flat section skirted by Belmont Circular Road and the sloping terrain
rising from the eastern side of the Circular and traversed by the connecting
Belmont Valley Road and St. Francois Valley Road.
The
latter provides a vehicular access to the Lady Young Road. Belmont is linked
to Laventille via St. Barbs Road and straddles the neighbourhood of Gonzales
via Belle Eau Road. Belmont is one
of the oldest settlement of POS with its beginning generated by Emancipation
in 1838 when the those freed moved from the plantations to the eastern reaches
of POS - Belmont and Laventille. This reality shaped its physical layout:
Now
Belmont’s streets reflect Belmont’s independence of mind. Not for them the orderly sameness of Woodbrook
layout, so lacking in character that one could not, at a glance, tell a Petra
Street from a Rosalino Street.
If
the streets in Belmont were planned at all, it must have been by someone with
a devious mind, who preferred mystery to predictability. The characteristic of Belmont’s streets was
and still is the casualness with which roads wander into lanes, and end abruptly
in alleys without a word of warning.” (taken from “Memoirs of a Belmont Boy”
author: Ralph Araujo)
But
there was community cohesion from very early recorded as far back as the 1860's
when the Rada families settled firstly in Belmont Valley Road bringing with
them their strong African spiritual values. Later along the Circular and in
close proximity the Christian churches were established - Belmont Methodist
Church, St. Francis R.C. Church, St. Margaret's E.C. Church. Primary and secondary
schools flourished. The Belmont Orphanage came into being.
Morvant is a relatively
new settlement coming after World War II. It is one of the early public housing programmes structured in planned
layouts and through which the Lady Young Avenue meanders. It is linked to
Laventille through Laventille Road on the north, Pelican Road on the west
and Old Morvant Road on the south. The
NHA has over the years undertaken apartment construction within this settlement.
Laventille lies in the centre of the Study Area,
epitomising the designation "behind the bridge", an expression it
shares with its western neighbourhoods of John John and East Dry River, due
to its main access point to Down Town POS being the bridge across the river
on Laventille Road. Its southern boundary is littered with a number of streets
emanating from the Eastern Main Road and intercepted by the one-way (west
to east) Old St. Joseph Road.
This
is the district made up of a number of villages which include Trou Macaque,
Success, Chinapoo, Prizgar Lands, Picton Hill, of remarkable evidence of human
survival, of creativity - the soul of Carnival and of the steelpan is largely
rooted in this place -, of community viability and conflict and fragmentation.
Haphazard physical development expresses itself as you ascend with the housing
in many areas not conforming to conventional planning standards but yet with
a certain order rooted in the common sense that survival evokes.
So
many of its citizens say they live under the yoke of a dehumanizing stigma
which substantially limits their potentialities and therefore shortens the
horizons of their young people. The facilities so necessary for viable human
settlement are largely non-existent.
Beetham was a Shanty Town which lived off the La Basse
now it is Beetham Estate - a transition from wood to concrete - comprising
some 800 families and having direct links to the Waste Disposal Facility,
the Central Market and the City. It comes under the jurisdiction of the NHA
and is flanked by two main arterials - Beetham Highway on the south and the
Priority Bus Route on the north. Central
to the Estate is the playground with SERVOL on its eastern side. These features
effectively generate two communities - Beetham E, which includes a settled
area and a squatter area on the eastern extremity and Beetham W. Beetham is a substantial residential area in
place for many years and which has grown and become consolidated by official
and unofficial settlement action.
Sea Lots: this community
actually below the south west corner of East POS comprises some 500 families
has been dangling on the eastern coastal section of the City for decades living
from day to day with no official sense of the future except that created by
its own energies. This is the most significant of the residential settlements
on the Waterfront. It is physically divided by the St. Anns River into two
sections - Sea Lots East and Sea Lots West also called Katanga. They both
fringe the Sea Lots Industrial Centres and have direct linkages with the St.
Vincent Caricom Jetty and the Central Market.
Residency
in this area goes back many generations linked initially to the old La Basse,
to the St Vincent Jetty and to pirogue (by oar and then by engine) fishing.
The population has grown and may comprise some 2000 people. There is some
level of community mobilisation and organisation in both areas and a high
degree of attachment to their location, as evinced by the following expressed
views of the citizenry:
"we
want to stay. Our families have grown in these areas, our children go to school
in The City, we find jobs on the Waterfront "
"we
deserve a better standard of living. We want to improve our homes to become
legal"
"don’t
talk about relocation. We will not stand for that"
"raise
the esteem of the people. We want our lives"
"we
are prepared to contribute to the settlement upgrading of the area".
The
problems facing Eastern Port of Spain are numerous and varied. They have been enunciated many times, e.g.
in the 1973 and 1988 documents produced by TCPD, in the IDB-financed Urban
Shelter Study and by residents themselves.
At the risk of some over-simplification they can be categorised into
two main groups:
·
Problems
related to physical development particularly housing and infrastructure. These are of prime concern to this project
·
Problems
related to social and non-physical development. These issues are essentially outside the scope of this study.
Their amelioration requires policies and proposals related to community
development and viability which though not directly addressed further in this
study are impinged through the process of relevant physical development issues.
It
should be emphasised that much of what follows is general in nature. The area is large and contains a wide variety
of communities with their own character, opportunities and problems. Improvement priorities will thus both differ
and vary between neighbourhoods – two communities with poor roads and water
supply may have different perceptions of which should be the priority issue.
Opinions will vary on how to develop ‘opportunity sites’.
Some areas may have problems unique to themselves, e.g. the impact
of pollution in St. Anns River in Sealots.
Problems
related to land use
Eastern
Port of Spain is an essentially residential area that supplies a significant
proportion of the labour force to central Port of Spain. The area has developed
incrementally, largely outside the official planning system, and without limited
reference to any land use plan. Most
structures have been built without planning permission. Anecdotal evidence suggests that TCPD hardly
ever handles planning applications from East Port of Spain. The area is essentially
at capacity in that there are few opportunities for new settlement development.
Those that do exist tend to be small and scattered throughout the area;
they often involve existing underused or derelict sites.
There
are few opportunities for increasing the quantum of settlement development.
There is also little potential for changing the overall existing and
well-established pattern of land use: to do so would involve major redevelopment
and relocation. Three comprehensive development areas were
proposed in the 1973 plan but were never implemented. The density of development also acts a major constraint on future
large-scale redevelopment. There is a clear need for an increase in recreational
facilities. Health care provision
also appears to be deficient as does the availability of community centres
which can provide a focus for community-based activities and organisations.
There are negligible sites at present
in use for business development.
The
potential for significant change is limited in the extreme, existing development
control standards are inappropriate and unaffordable and there is no reason
to believe that the application of stricter development control in the area
will be either feasible or beneficial. It was also apparent that in some areas,
local communities exert some form of development control in preventing further
housing development. In this context, the clear requirement is for
the identification of potential development sites, decisions as to what
such sites should be used for, and measures as to how the preferred uses can
be brought to fruition. This undoubtedly
emphasises that planning and implementation have to take place simultaneously.
Housing
Related Problems
This
applies to squatted, chattel and owner-occupied housing. The presence of sub-standard housing in many
areas is thus limited to newer houses located on the upper hillsides. One would expect that these too, would, over
time, be improved. Again the major
exception is part of Beetham (phase IV) which, unlike the other blocks in
this area was never redeveloped. Much
of the area is squatted, and has been for many years.
Current government policy is for regularization, which will increase
security of tenure and encourage residents to upgrade their properties and
contribute to infrastructure upgrading. This
policy is to be welcomed.
Problems
with Infrastructure
The
principal problems relate to inadequate water supply, extensive need for sewering,
inadequate roads, poor sanitation and drainage. The extent of these problems vary considerably
within the area as a whole. In some
areas, e.g. lower Belmont, they are not evident. In others, e.g. the squatting areas, they are
omni-present. In general however the
problems are essentially localised, i.e. action at a local level would lead
to substantial improvements, without either requiring action at a wider scale,
or impacting negatively on other areas. One
major exception is Beetham where flooding in the area comes from the lack
of capacity and inadequate maintenance of the main drains.
The
Port of Spain Local Area Concept Plan prepared in 1999 recommended an approach
based around incremental upgrading and rehabilitation. The current study endorses this approach.
Proposals for major redevelopment are rarely implemented due to problems
of cost, local opposition, and/or the unavailability of alternative sites
for existing residents. Simultaneously, the existence of such proposals
can act as a barrier to ongoing, incremental upgrading.
This
situation should only change where relocation sites, acceptable to the
local population, are available and can be developed at an affordable
cost. There is however one exception – Beetham Phase IV - where comprehensive
redevelopment may be the only feasible option.
The
key principles in the proposed approach are the following:
·
Any
programme for upgrading must be developed with the full participation of the
local community (ies) and the active involvement of community organisations
operating in the area. This participation
should include the identification of priorities and solutions to the deficiencies
and opportunities specific to that area. It should also extend to participation
in the scheme implementation/ construction works. These organisations have detailed knowledge
of their areas, a clear perception of the priority problems, and can identify
sites, however small that offer development opportunities. They resent outsiders
presenting them telling them what should be done or what they should be doing.
·
It
is imperative that any initiative has some financial commitment that will
permit the implementation of some of the identified improvements. Many communities and organisations are wary
of planning and development initiatives.
Too often they have come to nought leaving them angry and disillusioned. Funding sources should therefore be identified
beforehand
·
The
process should be incremental. It
should focus, in the initial stages on lower cost, more easily implementable
issues. Too often, proposals have
been over-ambitious and financially excessive.
As a result, projects implemented represent only a small proportion
of those proposed. As mentioned above,
the lack of follow-up implementation is a large factor in local dissatisfaction
and mistrust. The emphasis should
thus be on categorising problems in terms of their likely cost and, initially,
concentrating, on those that can most easily be resolved and are consistent
with the finance likely to be available.
[The issue on the inter-relationship between problems in adjacent areas
is discussed below]
·
There
should be co-ordinated action involving relevant government departments and
agencies, e.g. Ministry of Housing and Settlements, Ministry of Planning and
Development, INPPC, Land Settlement Agency, WASA. The aim would be to co-ordinate activities into a reduced number
of more concentrated initiatives.
Without
doubt the rejuvenation and regeneration of East POS is possibility the most
challenging human settlement enterprise for the country. The citizens are
tired and despondent and fed up with promises that seldom ever materialise,
with consultations that lead nowhere, with tomorrows that carry no hope:
"Due to a lack of interest tomorrow
has been cancelled indefinitely" - a Morvant graffitti
Therefore
the way forward requires a properly funded simultaneous planning and implementation
thrust - for trust to be generated, for the population to be stimulated, for
the communities to sense by visible achievement the possibility for their
collective and individual viability.
Accordingly
the enterprise cannot be undertaken in the conventional frame: it requires
an urgent, action-oriented, integrated approach based on the fundamental involvement
of the resident population and structured to pursue an incremental process.
Although
one hesitates to use the word ‘vision’ in the context of East Port of Spain,
where government investment and assistance has, for many years, been limited,
the following can be seen as representing the ideal:
‘By
2020, the provision of physical infrastructure and social/ community facilities
in East Port of Spain should be similar to those provided elsewhere in Greater
Port of Spain and employment opportunities inside and outside the area should
reduce unemployment to national levels’.
Some
ideas to build on community based planning in the East Port of Spain area
are illustrated in Figure 12.1.
The
principal vehicle for implementing the wholesale rehabilitation and upgrading
of East Port of Spain will be a specially designated Task Force. It could
come under UDeCOTT or similar agency and the area can be given a special legal
designation by the State to allow for the undertaking to have a specific focus,
a time frame and a capacity to resolve land ownership issues.
The
Task Force should be a small unit, housed in the area with sensitively located
branches as necessary.
There
would be three main stages to the implementation process:
Stage
1 Identification:
·
Establish
a physical presence in the area
·
Identify
ongoing public and private sector projects; evaluate their effectiveness and
shortcomings.
·
Generate
linkages with The Port of Spain City Corporation and The San Juan Laventille
Regional Corporation, with the relevant government agencies - URP, NCSH, WASA
- and the relevant Ministries assess and co-ordinate where necessary the existing
ongoing public and private sector projects
·
Organise
a system of community participation and mobilisation and collaboration with
NGO's, CBO's, Steelbands
· Interface with the private se