A bold social media appeal from Diego Martin’s top local official has ignited a fiery public exchange over long-deferred road repairs, pushing long-simmering infrastructure grievances into the national spotlight. On Wednesday, Akeliah Glasgow-Warner, mayor of the Diego Martin Borough, took to Facebook to share a viral video pleading for urgent intervention from Trinidad and Tobago’s Minister of Works Jearlean John, opening her clip with a playful nod to the leopard-print skirt she wore specifically to cut through social media noise and draw attention to the crisis plaguing local motorists.
Walking alongside cracked, pothole-ridden streets and pointing out dangerous damage to road surfaces, Glasgow-Warner pushed back against widespread public blame that had fallen on the Diego Martin Borough Corporation (DMBC) for the unresolved issues. She clarified that major highway and arterial road infrastructure, including stretches of the Diego Martin Highway at the center of complaints, falls under the jurisdiction of the national Ministry of Works, not the local borough government. Compounding the challenge, she explained, drastic cuts to local government funding have left the DMBC without the resources to step in even if leaders wanted to address the gaps: each of the borough’s councillors receives just TT$50,000 annually for all district maintenance projects, an amount Glasgow-Warner called insufficient to cover even minor repairs, let alone the years of systemic neglect she says the national ministry has allowed.
“This is not about political points for me. This is about the drivers, the residents who navigate these roads every single day,” Glasgow-Warner emphasized in her video, closing with a direct appeal to John to end the neglect of the Diego Martin area and deploy ministry crews to complete the required repairs.
The minister’s office fired back quickly, rejecting Glasgow-Warner’s accusations as unfounded and shifting blame to the previous national administration, which was led by former Prime Minister Keith Rowley, who also served as the Member of Parliament for Diego Martin for nearly a decade. In a formal statement released through the Ministry of Works and Infrastructure’s (MOWI) communications team, John called the mayor’s claims baseless, noting that the crumbling road surfaces and persistent underground leaks damaging the Diego Martin and St Lucien Roads stem from decades of neglected aging infrastructure that predates her leadership of the ministry.
John countered that unlike the previous administration, which she claims left the area’s basic infrastructure to rot, her current government has prioritized resolving long-backlogged repair projects. She said MOWI has been working in continuous coordination with the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) to map and address leak-related road damage across the country, and confirmed that targeted repair work on Diego Martin’s damaged roads was scheduled to get underway on Thursday, just one day after the mayor’s viral video was posted. “This neglect did not start under my watch, but unlike those who sat back and did nothing for years, this Government is not just talking…we are working!” John’s statement read.
The exchange comes as local governments across Trinidad and Tobago grapple with strained budgets, leaving many unable to address infrastructure projects that technically fall under national jurisdiction, while national agencies often point to limited resources and years of backlog to explain delayed repairs. The viral video has resonated with motorists across the country, many of whom have shared their own stories of dangerous pothole-ridden roads in their own communities.