WESTERN BUREAU — St James farmer, Teddy Foster, lost 300 chickens and 11 piglets, valued at about $80,000, in Monday night’s heavy rains.

The loss, said Foster, is one he cannot afford — especially since he is already half-a-million dollars behind in his payments for his Operation Pride lot at Barrett Hall in St James.

The flooding is even harder to swallow since it has been blamed on infrastructural work being carried out on the project.

As a result, Foster is among those clamouring for contractors, Black Brothers Limited, to speed up the infrastructural work, in order to minimise their property loss.

The day before the flooding, his name was among the over 300 beneficiaries published in a local newspaper as facing eviction because of outstanding payments.

The heavy rains and flooding, Foster said, has now removed his only source of income.

“I don’t have a steady job. What help me is farming and is a struggle,” the 40-year-old father of three said. “And this heavy rain damage mi. I don’t have a problem paying the money. But the product weh mi a try fi get the money together from is lost, so mi want to know what to do.”

Added the farmer: “I know that I have to pay for the land but I have mi three kids to look after. I am a farmer and mi try save money fi pay the land but now that everything lost what am I going to do?”

Michael and Stephney Allen, who have lived in the area for the past 10 years, also spoke of the need to have proper infrastructure in place — and fast.

“Every time it rains they just put more marl on the road, it is just a waste of money,” Michael told the Observer. “And they expect us to pay all this money. Our land is not valued that much. It’s the infrastructure we are paying for, but the infrastructure is not happening.”

There was no drainage system, he complained.

His wife, Stephney, added that while she believed the contractors were making an effort to do the work, they needed to pick up the pace.

“I believe they are trying. They are a bit slow in doing it but I believe they could work a little bit faster,” she said.

Meanwhile, Member of Parliament for the area, Ed Bartlett, has lamented the pace at which the infrastructure work is going.

According to the MP, the poor drainage at the development served to exacerbate Smith’s loss, and lots of others, during the recent rains.

“Properties have been damaged,” Bartlett said. “The rains came and because of the poor drainage resulting from the construction of the road in the area all the marl, the topsoil have been scoured off and run into the homes of the people. So a number of householders have had their furniture and other appliances damaged.”

He also maintained that there was a need for the contractors to speed up their work.

“Care has to be taken in the construction of the infrastructure in these Operation Pride developments because, especially on hilly terrain, the need for proper drainage is a must. And unless that is put in place,you are going to find that people are at risk,” he said.