Build dam in Mayaro

MAYARO MP Rushton Paray said the issue of providing water for the people Mayaro and, by extension, the country was a genuine concern. After reading a letter written to Newsday by L Seepersad about millions of gallons of fresh water being dumped into the Atlantic ocean, Paray said, “Firstly the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) should carry out a feasibility study on this issue.”

Manager of the Mayaro Constituency Office Neel Ramdath said, Seepersad should write to WASA detailing his findings.

The Ministry of Public Utilities recently issued several warnings to the public regarding the shortage of water supplies. The warning notes say members of the public would not be allowed to use water hoses, sprinklers or fountains in the coming weeks.

Seepersad dealt with the country’s water shortage in his letter, saying Government should consider opening a dam in Ortoire, Mayaro. Seepersad said the natural resource in the Ortoire River had been ignored by all for years.

Seepersad claims that a few years ago the Ortoire River drew crowds to witness a bioluminescence phenomenon. The 35 miles long river, he said, empties fresh water daily into the Atlantic. Using a Vortex meter, in the height of the dry season, Seepersad found that 2.7million gallons of fresh water were being dumped into the ocean each hour. This amounts to 62.4millon gallons of fresh water dumped on a daily basis. He said a plethora of water wells existed in Cedar Grove, Mayaro. He asked, “Why do we need this quantity of wells for Mayaro, which was very limited in production anyway, when a natural resource existed along the road?” He also asked, to whom were the well contracts issued, at what cost to the taxpayers, and who got kickback for such deals? His final question being, “Would it not be cheaper to create a dam and treat this water?”

Seepersad contacted various offices of WASA to seek answers as to why the resource was being ignored. He was unsuccessful in his attempts to get answers from WASA.

When contacted, Public Utilities Minister, Robert Le Hunte said he was out of the country and directed Newsday to WASA CEO Alan Pookin. Pookin said he would look into the issue and get back to Newsday.