By Emmanuel Joseph
Scores of angry residents of Olive Lodge, Holders Hill, are considering taking legal action against telecommunications giant Digicel to rid the village of a cell tower it erected last month.
A horticulturist, a civil servant and a professor representing about 70 families in the tiny, close-knit St James community on Thursday expressed their intention to seek legal help to file a court injunction to block any further work on the installation of the tower and to have it removed.
“The tower has to go… and we will not tolerate it,” declared spokeswoman Martina Gibson. “If we have to bring tractors in Olive Lodge Road and blockade Olive Lodge Road, we will do it. If we have to go to jail, we will do it too.”
At the heart of their concern is the “unilateral” decision to place the tower in their community, claiming it is in breach of international guidelines for distance from homes and amid fears that radiation from the tower would jeopardise their health.
“From this present moment when this Digicel tower was installed on January 18, 2024 between the hours of 1.20 p.m. and 3.20 p.m., life has not been the same in Olive Lodge Road, because, for one, the closest resident here who would be approximately 15 feet from this tower…when you go to work, you feel this presence of instability,” horticulturist Gibson told Barbados TODAY.
“There is also an extra heat,” she contended, “and it has nothing to do with the sun. Then there is the vibration, and the fear, knowing that cell phone towers give off radiation that can cause cancer…and many of us over the years have been affected with deaths.
“And now to see a tower put up that can cause cancer, it doesn’t give you any peace of mind. A lot of us have lost peace of mind. I am a person who works very hard…I don’t get tired easily, and I find that when you come into this area anywhere in close proximity [to] this tower and you leave, you feel tired. And then there is the fact that you have the oldest senior citizen who is 92 and then there are three young babies that live in the area, it is not good for the residents.”
Gibson, who was at the time collecting signatures for a petition, is adamant that residents will do whatever it took, including her having to go to jail, to ensure that the tower is removed.
Roach, the product of several generations of her family in Olive Lodge, recalled that her father was one of several residents who died of cancer.
Sharon Roach and Dr Jennifer Obidah-Alleyene in conversation.
“We have a suspected cancer cluster in here. Everybody that has died in this gap, has died from cancer. So, I have a concern that when there is anything that can pose a cancer risk because I know what cancer degeneration is…I saw it in front of my own eyes. So, this needs to be dealt with,” said the Barbados Meteorological Services employee.
The third member of the team of spokeswomen, Dr Jennifer Obidah-Alleyne, the former Dean of Humanities and Education at the University of the West Indies at Cave Hill said that before the tower’s erection, no inspection or site visit was undertaken or notice given to homeowners.
“Nothing was done,” she said. “There wasn’t a radio frequency test done, neither a power density test done. To my knowledge, the report as to the tenability of this property is yet to be determined by the Telecommunications Unit. I know that for a fact. The site visit only occurred on the day we were here on Tuesday…and a site visit is to happen before a tower is erected.”
She and Roach also observed that if the tower and an accompanying pole were to fall, they would destroy nearby houses. The two women also are not convinced that the structure is temporary as was told to them by the company.
Paul Gibson, the Democratic Labour Party’s aspirant to represent the St James Central riding, who visited the location said no correspondence was sent to residents nor meetings held informing of Digicel’s plan to place the tower in their village. Gibson was also concerned about a breach of the regulations that deal with distance between a tower and the nearest home.
“The regulation that specifies that the distance between the antennae and the nearest house is 65 feet. We have something as close as 30 feet next door to the antennae,” he told Barbados TODAY.
“And more specifically, even though they are asking for information from January 18 until current, there still [has] been no communication. And what we have been seeing is neglect for the people in St James Central and specifically in Olive Lodge.”
Describing the lack of communication with the people as indecent, the DLP’s Gibson demanded that Digicel begin talks with the villagers about the tower.
“They didn’t say why, where it came from, but they are dropping it in Olive Lodge, and we are saying no…that is unacceptable, they need to find somewhere else with more space and outside of a very tight community,” he said.
Barbados TODAY has reached out to Digicel for comment.
emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb
