Click to view full size

NOW one month after the general election that brought to power a new ruling party, the future of the billion-dollar project to transform San Fernando started by the former People's National Movement (PNM) remains uncertain.

For decades, the city of San Fernando sprawled across the south-western coastline, populated by business complexes, housing developments, fishing communities and the hundreds of squatters who built their lives along the San Fernando Waterfront.

By last month, the squatting community that had long marked King's Wharf and environs had been completely emptied, according to former Member of Parliament Faris Al-Rawi, who just before the April 28 election said that all of its former residents had opted for government compensation or relocation to a newly built housing development. 'They have all been paid for. People have been relocated physically, their houses moved,' he had said.