STATEMENT BY RUSHTON PARAY, MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT FOR MAYARO
WATER EVERYWHERE, EXCEPT MAYARO
Even with the recent heavy rains, several communities in the Mayaro electoral constituency are continuing to endure a crippling shortage of pipe-borne water.
The Water and Sewerage Authority and Minister of Public Utilities Marvin Gonzales are still callously ignoring the severe plight of residents of several highly-populated districts.
I have written to Mr. Gonzales and raised the issue on several occasions in Parliament, and I have communicated with WASA’s Executive Director Lennox Sealey, with no positive results.
Residents, including the elderly and infirm, and businesses, which also comprise the hospitality sector and agro-processors, are suffering for a supply of the essential commodity although WASA’s dams are filled.
The inefficient distribution is the result of blatant victimisation of residents of rural communities and a stark refusal to restore facilities and improve capacity. The PNM administration has declined to undertake any repairs and upgrading in those communities over the past five years.
My research has uncovered appalling examples of abandonment of vital resources. For example, WASA has neglected to connect an intake line from the Petrotrin water treatment plant in Guaygauayare, rendering the facility useless. The plant has remained idle only because of the absence of the connecting line.
There is also urgent need for upgrading of Maloney and Stone Bright Water Treatment Plants and the addition of new wells in order to increase production. Such improvements would boost capacity to the point that Mayaro and adjoining communities would be able to enjoy a 24-hour supply.
In recent years there has also been a steady decrease in production from the Cedar Grove well fields. The Number 9 well, which is the largest, has been taken out of service as a result of salt water intrusion. This well contributed greatly to servicing the Mayaro town centre.
Residents of Bristol Village, Mafeking, St. Anns, Manzanilla Road, Ortoire Village, Cascadoux, Kernahan and parts of Mayaro are affected by the poor scheduling of the San Pedro Booster Station. The station regulates the supply to those districts from the Navet Dam.
A tank at Mayaro which is filled from the Navet system is in danger of collapse as a result of soil slippage.
These and other critical remedial works are long overdue, but WASA’s management remains flagrantly vindictive to communities of the Mayaro constituency.
The scandalous malice is prevailing even during the Covid-19 pandemic, when personal hygiene and community sanitation are a matter of life and death.
The horrible persecution of the long-suffering residents is a criminal act perpetrated against citizens by an oppressive Government.
