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WASA has of­fi­cial­ly charged two farm­ers who were re­port­ed­ly si­phon­ing wa­ter in Aranguez for their gar­dens.
The farm­ers were served with sum­mons­es to ap­pear in court lat­er this month while they were meet­ing with Agri­cul­ture Min­is­ter Clarence Ramb­harat on Tues­day evening.
On Sat­ur­day, se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cers em­ployed with WASA con­fis­cat­ed the pumps of two farm­ers in the Aranguez dis­trict.
The farm­ers had threat­ened le­gal ac­tion against the move and de­mand­ed the re­turn of their equip­ment.
WASA has im­posed re­stric­tions on the use of wa­ter hoses, sprin­klers and im­posed a sched­uled sup­ply of wa­ter to res­i­dents as it claims its reser­voirs were be­ing de­plet­ed by the harsh dry sea­son.
The farm­ers are ex­pect­ed to ap­pear be­fore the Port-of-Spain Third Mag­is­trates' Court on May 22.
Source: Sheldon Awai Breaking News

Dozens of Venezuelan asylum seekers and refugees flocked to the Our Lady of Perpetual Help RC Church in San Fernando on Monday, hoping to get assistance ahead of the government's May 31 registration.
From as early as 7 am, the Venezuelans gathered at the church on Harris Promenade where they were interviewed by officials from the Living Waters Community.
A spokesman at the church said through the Living Waters Community, Venezuelans get assistance with housing, health, education, documentation, security and other social services. Living Waters Community is also the implementing agency for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNCHR).
Venezuelan national Joseph Figuera, his wife Daniella and their daughter Victoria were among those who came for help.
Figuera said he came to Trinidad nine months ago and was interested in getting registered as an asylum seeker.
Asked how he was coping, Figuera said his mother was Trinidadian so he was faring better than most Venezuelans.
During the interview, a security guard at the compound called Figuera and told him he will not get any help if he spoke to the Guardian.
Earlier the same guard barred Guardian Media from entering the church compound saying it was private property.
She said she had instructions from senior officials not to allow the Guardian inside their premises.
Other Venezuelans who stopped to talk with the Guardian outside the church gates were advised not to comment if they wanted help.
However, when contacted, an official from the UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency said it works closely with the Living Waters Community to ensure that Venezuelans who fleeing the horrific conditions in their homeland are treated well.
A senior official at Living Waters Community said it conducts registration twice weekly on Mondays and Thursdays at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church.
UNHCR Registration staff conduct registration interviews, enroll persons in UNHCR’s Biometric Identity Management System (BIMS), and issues and renews UNHCR documentation.
Under the UNHCR, asylum seekers have the right to live in an environment free from discrimination, regardless of ethnicity, colour, sex, language, religion, political opinion, nationality, economic position, birthplace or any other personal attribute.
According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, any person whose life is in danger in their own country has the right to seek protection and asylum in another country.
The Constitution of Trinidad and Tobago guarantees rights without discrimination on the basis of race, origin, colour, religion or sex.
On May 31, Venezuelans who do not have a criminal record will be registered in T&T.
Once they are cleared, they will be given the opportunity to live and work in T&T for a year.
- by Radhica De Silva. Photo by Kristian De Silva. Source: CNC3 May 2019

The ochroes grow­ing in the back­yard of Harold and Par­batie Boodoo have again grown to ex­tra­or­di­nary lengths.
The last time the Guardian Me­dia high­light­ed their crop was in 2018 when the ochroes had grown to stag­ger­ing 20 inch­es but now a year lat­er, the ochroes have grown an inch longer.
Dur­ing an ex­clu­sive in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia, Par­batie said she was hop­ing that they could fi­nal­ly en­ter the Guin­ness World Book of Records.
The last time the en­try for an ap­pli­ca­tion was not pos­si­ble as Par­batie had har­vest­ed the ochro.
There is no record in the Guin­ness World Book of Records for the world longest ochro, al­so known as okra. How­ev­er, re­search shows that a Malaysian woman grew an ochro to a length of 18 inch­es while Sud­hish Ku­mar, of Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates broke the Li­ma World Record with ochro mea­sur­ing 16.3 inch­es.
Par­batie said her daugh­ter Kim­ber­ly Fung plans to make an ap­pli­ca­tion to the Guin­ness World Book of Records on their be­half. “We want to have an ad­ju­di­ca­tor come to our home at Tem­ple Street, Dun­can Vil­lage, San Fer­nan­do to view the ochroes. This is the first time the ochroes grew so long. It seems every time we plant they get longer and longer,” she said.
Harold, 76, said he spends most of his time car­ing for his plants in his lit­tle back­yard gar­den. “I talk to the plants a lot. Maybe that is why they grow so big,” Harold quipped.
He said the on­ly fer­tilis­er he us­es is Blauko­rn.
“I have the seeds. They are a va­ri­ety of ochroes called Deer­horn but it is not usu­al for them to grow this big,” Harold said.
He added that the few ochro trees in his yard pro­duce more than two dozen ochroes each.
“You know how much ochroes we gave away. It is amaz­ing how much these few trees pro­duce,” he added.
The cou­ple al­so said they want­ed re­searchers from the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies and the Min­istry of Agri­cul­ture to vis­it their home and con­duct tests to de­ter­mine how the soil was so fer­tile.
“This is nor­mal sap­atay clay. We don’t use any big set of fer­tilis­er. There must be some rea­son why the crops come so good. I think there should be some test­ing,” Boodoo said.
He al­so agreed to share some of his ochro seeds to the Min­istry to do ex­per­i­ments.
Source: Trinidad Guardian, April 2019

Rook­min Mathu­ra is 104 years old but she still walks with a pep in her step.
To prove her en­er­gy lev­els and re­mark­able abil­i­ties, Mathu­ra, dressed in her gold­en dress and orhni, gave a brisk and dig­ni­fied walk for the Guardian Me­dia crew dur­ing her birth­day par­ty cel­e­bra­tions last Sat­ur­day.
Four gen­er­a­tions in­clud­ing her sev­en daugh­ters, sev­en sons and a mul­ti­tude of grands who at­tend­ed the cel­e­bra­tion, ap­plaud­ed loud­ly.
Her youngest daugh­ter Cin­ty Nar­ine who vis­it­ed from New York said it was her wish to re­turn home and hug her moth­er.
Hav­ing been abroad for 19 years, Nar­ine said it was amaz­ing that her moth­er still had such abil­i­ties and ab­solute­ly no health com­pli­ca­tions.
“She has nev­er been in the hos­pi­tal for any ail­ment. Up to when she was 86, she was still mind­ing cows and mak­ing a gar­den.
“She was al­ways a hard work­er. Then we de­cid­ed that was too much for her and we got rid of the cows,” she said.
She added that Mathu­ra no longer cooks but still does every­thing else for her­self.
“She has no di­a­betes, heart prob­lems, stroke, noth­ing. If she walks in the sun she gets a bit dizzy but that is it,” she added.
Nar­ine said Mathu­ra’s moth­er came to Trinidad as an in­den­tured labour­er. Mathu­ra was born in 1915.
Dur­ing an in­ter­view, Mathu­ra said she had for­got­ten how old she was. She said she spent most of her life work­ing on the es­tate.
“I had sev­en daugh­ters and sev­en sons and all are alive,” she said. How­ev­er, her hus­band died 57 years ago, leav­ing her to care for her chil­dren sin­gle-hand­ed­ly. She nev­er mar­ried but raised an­i­mals, plant­ed a gar­den and en­sured that all of the chil­dren had a firm spir­i­tu­al up­bring­ing.
One of her great-grand­sons, Chris­t­ian Rud­der, said he was thank­ful that his great grand­moth­er was still around. He said de­spite her age, she was al­ways ac­tive.
“She so old but she does still be cut­ting grass. She has a cut­lass which she us­es every day. She loves to walk the vil­lage and check peo­ple. This is how she stays hap­py,” Rud­der said.
He added that she was full of wis­dom.
So what was her best ad­vice?
“She said girls are too hard­en and don’t study them. She tells me that do some­thing bet­ter than that like my school work be­cause girls are trou­ble,” Rud­der laughed.
He added that Mathu­ra al­so ad­vis­es them to stay away from cig­a­rettes and al­co­hol.
“She says she used to drink and smoke and it did not do her good. Now she eats lots of veg­eta­bles and she re­mains ac­tive,” Rud­der said.
Mathu­ra’s favourite food is dhal, rice and bha­gi.
“She doesn’t know how to sit qui­et­ly. She likes to move around. She talks a lot. She loves to tell us what hap­pened in her ear­ly days. I want to thank God that she is here and I could still see her, hug her and love her,” Rud­der said.
Mathu­ra and all of her fam­i­ly went to the beach on Sun­day to cel­e­brate her life.
Source: Sheldon Awai, FB, April 25, 2019

This soil gave birth to the first black woman to be crowned Miss Universe in the history of the award, Janelle Commissiong, in 1977, and went on to see the gorgeous Wendy Fitzwilliam cop the title in 1998. Trinidad and Tobago has had five representatives place in runner-up positions at the international beauty pageant.
According to Providr, “Trinidadian women are well known for their extreme diversity in terms of looks due to the racial mixing on the island. The women are downright gorgeous…”  In Trinidad and Tobago, you will find people of Indian, African, Chinese, Syrian, Lebanese, European, and Indigenous ancestry, to name a few. 
​Melodic Accent
Our women are both beautiful and intelligent. Now mix this with the fact that MSN ranked Trinidad and Tobago’s accent as the 4th sexiest in the world, and you just might have a recipe for something very close to perfection.
The team at MSN stated that “…this accent is the most charming on women for its musicality and singsong quality. If you were to plot the notes of Trinidadian speech on a music sheet, they would flit up and down throughout the staff. Even when they’re angry, Trinidadians sound sprightly.”
And according to CNN, who ranked the accent 11th sexiest in the world, it “offers an undulating, melodic gumbo of pan-African, French, Spanish, Creole and Hindi dialects that, when adapted for English, can be sex on a pogo stick.”
The full list includes Venezuela, Brasil, Argentina, Korea, Ethiopia, India, Italy, Trinidad and Tobago, Canada, USA, the UK, the Philippines, Russia, Sweden, Iran, and Australia.
Many may say validation was not needed. After all, if God is a Trini, then the women here are surely angels. 
Source:  Life in Trinidad & Tobago 2017

Laventille teen gets into US Ivy League university
Every year Princeton University in New Jersey, USA, receives around 35,000 applications for entry. Fewer than 2,000 applicants are admitted, making the private Ivy League institution one of the most difficult schools to get into.
But not only was 19-year-old Laventille resident Jafar Howe accepted into Princeton, but he also got accepted into Dartmouth College, another Ivy League school in the USA.
He grew up in Quarry Street, Laventille.
Howe told the Express when he sent out the applications he was not optimistic.
He had narrowly missed out on a Government scholarship despite performing well in the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency (CAPE) exams.

To­ba­go’s Main Ridge For­est Re­serve has been named the Caribbean Na­ture Park of the Year in the Caribbean Jour­nal’s Caribbean Awards 2019.
Caribbean Jour­nal (CJ) is the world’s largest web­site cov­er­ing the Caribbean, has orig­i­nal con­tent and video fo­cus­ing on trav­el and tourism across the en­tire Caribbean and is the glob­al leader in cov­er­ing Caribbean trav­el and trade news.
Ac­cord­ing to the Jour­nal, the Green Awards are meant to “cel­e­brate those who are al­ready work­ing to pro­tect and strength­en this beau­ti­ful cor­ner of the world.”
In the ar­ti­cle post­ed on their web­site, Caribbean Jour­nal em­pha­sised that be­ing “green” en­com­pass­es re­new­able en­er­gy, lo­cal and sus­tain­able tourism, and con­sid­er­a­tion of the en­vi­ron­ment.
To­ba­go’s Main Ridge For­est Re­serve, which was recog­nised by Caribbean Jour­nal as the Caribbean Na­ture Park of the Year, was de­clared a Crown Re­serve in 1776 mak­ing it the old­est legal­ly pro­tect­ed for­est re­serve in the West­ern Hemi­sphere es­tab­lished for a con­ser­va­tion pur­pose.
It was al­so nom­i­nat­ed as a UN­ESCO World Her­itage Site in Au­gust 2011, and was vot­ed the “World’s Lead­ing Eco-Tourism des­ti­na­tion” by the World Trav­el Awards in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006.
The Caribbean Jour­nal de­scribed the Re­serve as “a liv­ing ex­am­ple of the pow­er of con­ser­va­tion and one whose con­tin­ued stew­ard­ship sends a dai­ly mes­sage to the rest of the re­gion. It’s al­so one of the most re­mark­able places to vis­it in the re­gion, a haven of bio­di­ver­si­ty and a por­tal in­to the nat­ur­al splen­dor of this gem of the South­ern Caribbean.”
The Main Ridge For­est Re­serve is one of the is­land’s at­trac­tions that form part of its thriv­ing eco-tourism prod­uct—one of the four pil­lars for growth of the tourism in­dus­try iden­ti­fied by the To­ba­go Tourism Agency.
Vis­i­tors to the re­serve can en­joy its lush trop­i­cal beau­ty through guid­ed tours, na­ture walks, bird watch­ing and moun­tain bik­ing.
Source:  CNC3

Over 90 Venezuelan passengers trying to get into TT through the Cedros port were turned back by T&T Coast Guard as patrols on the border heightened on Thursday.
With intensified street protests and violent clashes on the streets of Venezuela, hundreds of desperate Venezuelans have found the fresh resolve to flee their homeland.
A source who requested anonymity said two ferries Orinoco Delta and Angel were scheduled to arrive at the Cedros port on Thursday. The Orinoco Delta was transporting 60 passengers, including one Trinidadian man with his passport.
The Angel had 35 passengers which included two Venezuelan women who are married to Trinidadian men and an elderly Venezuelan woman. She had a Trinidadian passport and was accompanied by a child believed to be her grandson.
The source said upon reaching about two miles off the Cedros coast, the TT Coast Guard interceptor stopped the Angel. They detained the passengers at sea for more than an hour, perusing documents. All of the Venezuelans were sent back except the grandmother and the two women with Trinidadian husbands.
The grandmother was distraught that the grandson was separated from her, the source added.
The Angel had been registered to dock at the Cedros port, the source added.
The Orinoco Delta which normally comes to Cedros port at least three times per week was also stopped by the Coast Guard. For more than an hour, the vessel stayed out at sea. The lone Trinidadian was taken back to the port via the Coast Guard vessel but after an hour of detention, the ferry with almost 60 passengers was also sent back by the TTCG.
"No instructions were given to Customs and officers were later briefed. It is not usual for the ferries to be sent back because Venezuelans come here to shop for basic groceries and medicine to take back to their families, " the source added.
At the Cedros coast, dozens of people waited for the ferries to dock up to 430 pm. It was through WhatsApp that some of them learned the TTCG had detained the ferries.
One man who took videos of the Coast Guard was warned by CG officers who threatened to arrest him if he failed to delete the video.
Contacted for comment, councilor for Cedros Shankar Teelucksingh said he was puzzled by the developments.
He said the TTCG should have informed the ferry owners that they were not allowed to enter the Cedros port prior to their departure in Venezuela.
Teelucksingh said the TTCG should focus on cracking down on the illegal entry of Venezuelans.
"This kind of thing will cause Venezuelans to choose the illegal way to enter rather than the legal way" he added.
Teelucksingh also said better lockdown of the borders were needed for those boats bringing in illegal migrants.
Contacted for comment yesterday Public Affairs Lieutenant of the TT Coast Guard Officer Hillaire said a statement will be issued pending investigations.
Since tensions escalated in Venezuelan in January, hundreds of Venezuelans have been entering TT through several points in the southern coast.
These include Galfa Point, Carlise Trace, Coromandel, Chatham, Green Hill, Icacos, Columbus Bay and Fullarton Beach.
The foreigners are dropped off on the beach. They hide out in the forests at nights and by 5 am they are picked up in maxi taxis by Trinidadian men.
Venezuelans normally spend between $1,500 to $2,000 to get to Trinidad.
The fees are paid in US and are non-refundable.
It is estimated that there are between 40,000 to 50,000 Venezuelans living illegally in TT. An estimated 700 Venezuelans come through the Cedros port weekly.
Source:  CNC3