Residents sound alarm over erosion threat in Ridgewood Gardens

KEVON FELMINE

Se­nior Re­porter

[email protected]

Every heavy rain show­er brings fresh con­cern for some fam­i­lies in Ridge­wood Gar­dens, Gol­con­da, as rain­wa­ter rush­es through a col­lapsed drain be­hind their homes, widen­ing cracks and wash­ing away soil.

Res­i­dents say sev­en homes have been af­fect­ed by ero­sion linked to the col­lapsed drain, which they claim has re­mained un­re­paired for more than five years de­spite re­peat­ed com­plaints to au­thor­i­ties.

They pre­sent­ed copies of let­ters ad­dressed to Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion (HDC) chair­man Feeroze Khan, for­mer chair­man Noel Gar­cia and Pe­nal-Debe Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion chair­man Gow­tam Ma­haraj.

When Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed the com­mu­ni­ty last week, mud and stone lined sec­tions of the road­way af­ter a week­end of heavy rain­fall.

Along one street, slush had washed through yards, clog­ging drains and pipes. Walk­ways were cracked and sec­tions of drainage in­fra­struc­ture ap­peared to be slip­ping away.

Home­own­ers have spent thou­sands of dol­lars on tem­po­rary work to plug the ero­sion, but the ef­forts have not stopped the dam­age.

Res­i­dents say foun­da­tions of homes are be­ing erod­ed, with spaces be­tween floors and skirt­ing as ev­i­dence. Be­neath one house, a de­pres­sion es­ti­mat­ed at two to three feet deep held pooled wa­ter.

A dri­ve­way near­by had a deep crater where wa­ter flowed down­hill from the col­lapsed drain in­to the road­way.

De­bra Lewis-Di­az, pres­i­dent of the Ridge­wood Gar­dens Gol­con­da Com­mu­ni­ty Unit­ed group, said she has lived in the com­mu­ni­ty for more than 17 years.

She said the com­mu­ni­ty does not even have street names and is not re­flect­ed on maps. She al­so com­plained of drainage is­sues that she said were not be­ing ad­dressed.

“The drain has col­lapsed be­hind this house and the house just be­fore it, and be­cause of that, all the wa­ter backs up and flows in­to oth­er peo­ple’s yards. That has caused ero­sion, and the yards are ac­tu­al­ly soaked. There is ero­sion un­der the hous­es, so their foun­da­tions are be­ing com­pro­mised.”

Lewis-Di­az said she wrote sev­er­al let­ters to the Pe­nal-Debe Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion and re­ceived a re­sponse dat­ed March 26 in­di­cat­ing that com­plaints would be for­ward­ed to the HDC.

She said the com­plaints have been on­go­ing for years and re­called of­fi­cials tour­ing the area with Coun­cil­lor Ger­ard Per­reira while promis­ing as­sis­tance.

She added that res­i­dents were re­cent­ly told that a min­is­ter would vis­it the com­mu­ni­ty, but he nev­er showed up.

For re­tired Lester Ga­jad­har, the is­sue has al­so be­come a fi­nan­cial bur­den. Ga­jad­har said he has spent his own mon­ey hir­ing ex­ca­va­tors to clean the area and main­tain the sur­round­ings.

He said he suf­fers from three pinched nerves and can­not af­ford to take care of both him­self and the drainage prob­lems.

“This is an on­go­ing thing. Look at the road right now, and I have to come out and walk in this every day. HDC stopped cut­ting the grass here, but I plant here, so I am main­tain­ing this whole area,” Ga­jad­har said.

He es­ti­mat­ed that he has spent be­tween $12,000 and $15,000 over the years try­ing to ad­dress the prob­lem.

“Re­mem­ber, we are sac­ri­fic­ing and try­ing to own a home, and when things like this hap­pen, the gov­ern­ment is not do­ing any­thing. Whether PNM or UNC, no­body is do­ing any­thing. You know how long that drain has been col­lapsed there and caus­ing prob­lems for peo­ple out here? Poor peo­ple?”

Point­ing to over­grown bush­es along the M2 Ring Road, Ga­jad­har said wa­ter from sur­round­ing com­mu­ni­ties backs up in­to the road­way and can rise two to three feet dur­ing in­tense rain­fall.

Lewis-Di­az said im­me­di­ate drainage and road­works are need­ed be­fore the sit­u­a­tion wors­ens.

Con­tact­ed for a com­ment, HDC chair­man Khan said he was un­aware of the is­sue. He re­quest­ed in­for­ma­tion on the res­i­dents’ con­cerns and said he would make en­quiries be­fore re­spond­ing.