The only dry place in Plastic City for the Ramdass children to play is on their tiny deck.
“We grow up small in here and we still living here,” Ramdass says. Like all the residents, the woman says if she is allocated a house lot elsewhere, she is willing to move. Plastic City, which floods during the high tides and never dries during the rainy season, is not healthy for children, she says. She points out that when the water rises, it floods the latrines. Her home is built with pieces of “crab bush wood”, wattles and covered with zinc. “None new brand material ain’t deh on,” she says.
Ramdass says her husband, Jaiveer Kumar Lall, a labourer, does not earn enough. “Just because people can’t do better mek people live here,” she says.