Water relief forHololo/St Ann’s soon

RESIDENTS of the Mt Hololo and St Ann’s areas are soon to benefit from an improved water supply, thanks to a 100,000-gallon water tank.

Public Utilities Minister Robert Le Hunte, who visited the area on Friday, said between 40,000 and 50,000 residents would now have a three-day-a-week supply instead of two days.

The Hololo water tank was one of four installed in areas with low water supply, at a cost of $13 million. The other areas were Tucker Valley, Quarry and Four Roads.

The minister said while the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) was trying to provide this essential service, there was still a shortage in production of about 50 million gallons.

“This water tank is about increasing storage capacity. This tank rests with another, so this is moving storage from 250,000 gallons per day to 350,000 gallons per day,” he said.

Le Hunte said the ultimate goal was to provide water to communities throughout TT on a 24-7 basis, but meanwhile incremental increases were being made via these projects.

“At WASA, we have a lot of problems with our water issues. The reality is, although as a country we produce sufficient water to meet the demands of the population, due to a number of issues, both internal and external, (in) the amount of water that is actually reaching the citizens, we have a deficit position which I estimate to be in the vicinity of 50 to 60 million gallons a day.

“The reality is we produce 230 million gallons a day. The population receives about 130 million gallons and the demand for water is 180 million gallons a day,” he said.

He said storage was one of the areas which was not up to the international standard, which was 2,000 litres of storage per capita. TT’s capacity was as low as 60 litres.

Le Hunte said as fixing WASA was a multi-faceted approach, it also had to work at increasing production.

He also said WASA was trying to stem the flow of non-revenue water (NRW), which was caused essentially by leaks and wastage. He said there were about 2,100 leaks around the country, a figure he wanted to bring down to 800.

The minister said international standards showed TT should have about 30 per cent NRW but was hovering around 45-50 per cent.

“We are going to lose water through NRW. You cannot run a perfect system, it is impossible.”

He noted, “We also have to curb demand. We have inculcated in TT a lot of bad habits as to the use of water, whether it is because it is very cheap or not. We all consume water, when we do get it, in a most inefficient manner, and we practise conservation in the dry season. The reality is, if we develop bad habits for six months, culture is like that: you can’t switch it on and off. We have to develop a culture of conservation.”

Le Hunte said digging new wells, upgrading existing wells and damming rivers were part of the venture to increase water production, but this required a lot of capital expenditure.

“We are looking to get partnership and partner with the private sector in helping us to produce more water.” WASA was also looking into installing water meters, already in place for about three per cent of the population. “That is an expensive venture and one we have been talking about with a number of international agencies in trying to understand what is best practice throughout the world,” he said.