Teach WASA to save water for dry season

THE EDITOR: I see that WASA has taken away farmers’ pumps used to extract water from the Aranguez River for their crops. And now it says the river water is WASA’s – and rain water also. I did not know that WASA signed a contract with God, who is responsible for both the river and the rain.

Well, since the river water belongs to WASA, all the rain that flooded out the country last year, what did WASA do with it? It should have been reserved for such a time as the country is experiencing today. Last year the wet season was longer than the dry season and WASA did not reserve water for the people during this dry time.

The billion-dollar project that was stopped was to provide water in the dry season but some bright-eyed, bushy-tailed official decided to abandoned it, because they put politics before country.

Water is wasting all over the country, but the Minister of Public Utilities is boasting about how many leaks were fixed by the authority. What WASA has to do is reserve water for prolonged dry spells but it appears it does not have a clue how to do this.

I think the minister should send a few WASA engineers to Israel to see how they reserve water there and why that country has the most water in the world.

Israel is so technologically advanced that it is taking water from the Jordan, that muddy river where Jesus Christ was baptised, and producing clean drinking water for the country of nearly nine million people. (It is also producing fresh water from sea water.) TT has a little less than 1.4 million people and WASA can’t provide water for all.

Come on Mr Minister, this is unacceptable. We are in the 21st century and we are still not getting it right. It is more than time to take technology in TT to the next level and get WASA moving. So stop the old talk and the blame game and fix the problem. The ball is in your court.

MODICIA MARTIN via e-mail