10. Our cemeteries are often homes for vagrants and the site of many illicit activities.
9. Expensive monuments and tributes that are constructed in memory of our loved ones are vandalized.
8. Cemetery allotments are difficult to maintain. Since there is no cemetery wide maintenance plan, it is often difficult to access your cemetery allotment and even if you can maintain it the surrounding bushes will soon prevail again.
7. It is unsafe to visit cemeteries as they are often poorly lit and deserted.
6. Several studies conducted in the US and Europe found that there is a higher concentration of nitrates found in the ground water below cemeteries. Nitrates are a byproduct of human decomposition and in excess causes long-term blood related diseases.
5. Water can collect in the uneven crevices of inadequately maintained graves or dilapidated tombs and can become breeding grounds for mosquitoes.
4. Cemeteries in Trinidad were poorly planned so at funerals we may have to navigate hilly or rocky terrains and often times it is difficult to find specific allotments. Some people have found their allotments only to discover that another family wrongfully buried their loved one in their grave.
3. With earth burials, the weight of roughly 6 feet of dirt on top of a wooden casket causes the top of the casket to cave in after about 1 week. This results in a sunken appearance of the grave which is usually very disheartening for loved ones. Additionally, in the rainy season in Trinidad and Tobago, graves often cave in causing burials to be postponed for days.
2. Trinidad is running out of burial space!
1. Current cemetery conditions are NOT good enough for our loved ones!
