Well, fix it!

Residents of a St Michael community fear they could face tragedy if authorities do not hastily repair a damaged well in the area.

The well covering is leaning dangerously and despite repeated efforts to have it fixed, they complained that nothing has been done.

With several children living in the close-knit Pinder’s Avenue, Culloden Road, St Michael community, residents are concerned that the stone blocks could collapse at any point and possibly injure one of them.

Arthur Chase, who has been living in the neighborhood for over 20 years, told Barbados TODAY he had even contacted Member of Parliament Kirk Humphrey in hopes of getting the well fixed.

However, he said to date he had received no response.

Efforts by Barbados TODAY to reach Humphrey were unsuccessful.

Chase said the well had been built over 50 years ago and was estimated to be about 40-feet deep.

He explained that a nearby canal had been built to accommodate some of the water that would normally flow into the well and when it could no longer handle the capacity another well was built alongside it.

“If we could have fixed this ourselves we would have fixed it because this is something technical. We even went to the constituency office and made a report already and spoke to persons who work in the Drainage division, but nothing, nothing, nothing,” he complained.

“This is years now that this well has been like this. It’s only a matter of time before these stones move from here and this whole well collapses.”

Chase said there were children who lived and played in the district.

He said there was even a tennis court near to the well and sometimes children had to venture near to it to retrieve balls.

“We are afraid that something might happen to one of the children in the area and they could be seriously injured,” Chase said.

“We do our best to maintain the wells but we can’t maintain it to this degree. And you know there were reports of people almost falling into wells and one person actually died from falling into a well. We can’t wait until that happens again for somebody to take action so we really want this dealt with.”

Another resident explained that they had already done some remedial work on the well.

He said this included painting the well in Barbados’ national colours and ensuring that the immediate surroundings were cleaned.

However, he said the necessary work was simply too much for residents to handle. randybennett@barbadostoday.bb