Dona Cayetano fed up with City’s clogged colonial drainage system
It’s not unusual to hear about problems with Belize City’s drainage system, but today we met one resident who has been constantly affected by poor drainage for years. Dona Cayetano lives at the corner of Oleander and Zacaranda Streets and she says that whenever it rains, her house floods. Cayetano’s frustration reached boiling point after spending the last two days cleaning up the muddy water, which has become a major health hazard for her family. She told News Five today that she even resorted to bailing water from the drains using a bucket.
Dona Cayetano, Affected by Drainage Problems
dona cayetano
“Whenever it rains, the drain gets full and the water just gets into my house. That’s every time ih rain and I lone complain and complain about it. This time now well I get enough because my lee bwai end up di get sick. When ih rain di Tuesday night I neva know ih rain. Dah my kids dehn wake me up and tell me ih di rain and thing. Right now my lee bwai can’t go dah school because ih have fever because ah di wata yesterday morning. He wake up straight into di wata eena di house because ah di drain problem. From I get up this morning I di bailout wata even wid bucket, do all kinda thing fi try get rid ah di wata. From snake deh eena my house because di wata bring snake. Di snake deh right down deh weh I kill yesterday. How dehn one weh I kill before? Every time dat dah my problem because dehn wouldn’t do better dan weh dehn di do wid di drain and I would ah want dehn come and at least bus di place so dat di wata could run mek I noh have wata problem because I have wata problem fi di longest because of di drainage. All mi rugs and everything I have to tek out because dehn get wet.”
Delahnie Bain
“And there’s mud settled in your tub right now.’
Dona Cayetano
“Yes, mud settle there. After the wata runs out di mud settle there. That is not healthy and then I have to use the same tub for my kids to bathe in. That is not healthy.”
Delahnie Bain
“I see you’ve been trying to do something out here to get the water out.”
Dona Cayetano
“What I was doing, first I use my shovel to see if I can bust the street so I can see if the water can come out. Even bucket I was using so that I can bail out the water out of the drain. I noh think that is right.”
Cayetano says she has complained to City Hall but she hasn’t had any luck.
MAYOR MOYA FOR CENTRAL GOVERNMENT…..OVER THE LAST TWO TERM IN OFFICE….SHE HAS SOLVED THE HARDEST ISSUES THAT THE CITY FACES!
We can use better infrastructure which would include flood mitigation & adequate drainage but we also have to understand that we need to start building homes to accommodate the topography of our land & the poor drainage that comes with living in certain areas. This is a tough situation to be in & it is unfair to the children but there appears to be failure on everyone’s part, the city council & the person who built the home. Maybe issuing building permits & having building codes will add to construction costs but we need to set minimum building standards to avoid situations like these. From the picture, it looks like this home was built on a slab foundation which makes no sense in Belize City.
Dona, I’m confused, how high did this water get inside your home & is there mud in the tub because you dumped the water in it? If you can afford to….MOVE.
You wonder how people think. All these years this lady couldn’t ask her area rep and those contesting in her area for a few bricks and cement to block water from seeping under her door. She didn’t have to build a wall around her entire yard. All she needed to do was lay a few bricks in front of her door with cement. One row of big blocks would have done the job. at less than a 100 dollars. This lady could have even saved 5 dollars a month for a year and a half and been able to do it herself if the politicos didn’t want to help. tHE COMMON MAN IS DESTINED TO BE DISAPPOINTED AND LEFT IN THE COLD IF THEY CONTINUE DEPENDING ON THE POLITICOS FOR EVEY SMALL THING. WE MAKE THE POLITICOS FEEL POWERFUL WHEN THEY REALISE THAT WE DEPEND ON THEM FOR EVEYTHING AND THAT IS WHY HOPELESS POLITICIANS KEEP WINNING ELECTIONS.
WHERE IS MAYOR MOYA……………… ISN’T THAT HER JOB?????????????????
To maintain and IMPROVE THE INFRASTRUCTURE??????????