MEMBER of Parliament for Mayaro Rushton Paray has condemned what he describes as the inability of State utility WASA to deliver a reliable supply of pipeborne water to a number of communities in southeast Trinidad.
In a statement, Paray said thousands of residents in Mayaro will endure a miserable Christmas without a supply of water unless WASA effects repairs.
Guayaguayare, Mayaro, Ortoire, Mafeking, Biche, San Pedro, Rest House, Poole Village, Bristol and St Ann’s are among areas affected while places such as Dades Extension 1, 2 and 3, Riverside Road, Lazarri Road, Legendre, Bangladesh, Stone Bright, La Savanne and La Brea are also without a supply of water, he said Thursday.
Paray said the residents have suffered for weeks, in some instances, without water and he appealed to WASA to end their distress in time for Christmas.
‘Many householders do not have a drop of pipe-borne supply to carry out domestic chores, and for caring for infants and the elderly. Business places, including guest houses and other hospitality facilities, have also had dry taps for weeks.’
He said repeated reports to WASA have yielded no results and the Authority has not responded to appeals to repair burst mains and to remedy other issues with local distribution, as there is no evidence of backhoes and other equipment at work on sites.
‘To the residents of these communities, it appears that the more things change at WASA, the worse the water flow gets in their taps.
‘Today, I make a public, passionate plea for WASA to please adopt the goodwill of the season and to end the residents’ hardship and torment. This is a Christmas gift that the long-suffering residents deserve,’ Paray said.
Following a meeting to discuss water woes on Friday, Couva South Member of Parliament Rudranath Indarsingh said WASA committed to make improvements and identified multi-million projects that could bring relief to communities.
The Sunday Express reported on Friday that 20,000 residents in Couva South were facing dry taps for the past 12 days and appealed to WASA for assistance.
On Friday Indarsingh, Member of Parliament for Tabaquite Anita Haynes and Member of Parliament for Caroni Central Arnold Ram held discussions with WASA chief executive Alan Poon King and its management team.
In a social media post, Indarsingh described the meeting as cordial.
He said commitments were given by WASA ‘to increase their number of trucks, to facilitate more trucking (after) requests for water and also to reduce the waiting time for persons who make a work request… for WASA to get water into their homes and also to address the whole issue of improving their communication with constituents.’
He added that two major projects were identified for execution ‘that will supposedly bring relief to residents of not only Couva South but surrounding constituencies and from a public sector investment programme point of view the final costings are being done but Mr Poon King indicated that preliminary figures it may be between $8 million to $10 million and this will certainly need the approval of the line Minister Marvin Gonzales.’
He called on Gonzales and the Prime Minister to approve the financing.
Indarsingh said, ‘I really hope that in order to address the woes of thousands of constituents in central Trinidad, the Government of Prime Minster Dr Keith Rowley will see the wisdom in finding approximately $10 million to improve the water supply and approve, under the public sector investment programme, so that we could bring a level of satisfaction to the constituents of central Trinidad.’
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