Wasteful TT

File photo: Public Utilities Minister Robert Le Hunte. Photo: Roger Jacob
File photo: Public Utilities Minister Robert Le Hunte. Photo: Roger Jacob

THIS COUNTRY is going to a face a very harsh dry season from next month but citizens are very wasteful of water, sometimes at 200 times international standards, reported Public Utilities Minister Robert Le Hunte.

“When you look at places where you meter water and you look at the volume of water that is used compared to international standards you see in some cases close to 150, 200 times what other people use as our international standards.”

He said water is also wasted for Carnival for “wet fetes.”

“We say these wet fetes are our culture. They’re not our culture; they are new things that have come up.” He said WASA has their role to play, leaks to fix and internal problems to see about but fixing a problem was about fixing all elements of a problem. He stressed the country is expecting a very harsh dry season and from January and WASA will begin working on a campaign to touch people throughout the country on conserving water and it will continue.

In Parliament last week Le Hunte said TT is one of the highest per-capita consumers of electricity in Latin America and the Caribbean. He said part of the reason driving it there is a lot of industries in TT but the size of the electricity consumed by domestic consumers is also relatively high.

“If you look at it you recognise that based on the figures...close to 219,000 consumers having bills of under $300. I mean that’s really low. So the people who are really benefiting from the high electricity bill...you have really that 45 per cent are the ones that are really paying the large percentage of money that comes in.”

He said it was close to 70 per cent of the income comes from this 45 per cent.

“You have people in Trinidad paying $300 bills you (also) have consumers paying $10,000 bills and $5,000 bills and $6,000 bills and $15,000 bills. In households.”

Le Hunte said having there is a cost to having electricity as it is currently and the people who really benefit from the low rate are the people consuming excess electricity, the 45 per cent. He said the country has to look at conservation targeted at the high users of electricity. He explained about 7.5 per cent of natural gas goes towards producing electricity which 45 per cent is using in a manner that is very excessive.

“So you are almost wasting my natural gas.”

Le Hunte said people advise the price should be raised but this was not part of his purview as it was under the Regulated Industries Commission. He stressed conservation was beyond just raising the price but it was about a consciousness of individuals to understand the impact of what their wasted approach has on the national agenda. He said energy efficiency will help the country as it seeks to meet international carbon emission targets.

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