The state of water

After significant rainfall from the passage of tropical storm Karen, the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) reports that its reservoirs remain short on capacity and the situation will become worse over the next two weeks as the Desalcott desalination plant goes offline for overdue maintenance. That will take 40 million gallons of water per day out of WASA’s pipelines and the authority is calling for more austerity in water use over the next two weeks.

That didn’t sit well with the chairman of the Couva/Tabaquite/Talparo Regional Corporation, Henry Awong who called the shutdown disastrous for his districts. Awong claims that water releases to the region have crippled communities leaving residents in Brasso and Eccles Village without a supply of water in weeks, others for months.

Communal water tanks are empty in the region because of faltering supply from the authority, the corporation’s lone water truck is down for repairs and unpaid bills to water trucking contractors have crossed $600,000. As far as Awong is concerned, calls to store water are a farce, because for many communities, there is no water to store. It’s not as if WASA can’t manage diminished water resources when it plans as the authority’s current strategy of making a shell game out of water pressure attests.

In May, Minister of Public Utilities Robert Le Hunte promised publicly that schools would get priority water supply and principals were given clear guidelines on how to request supply if a problem arose. Le Hunte’s promise has largely borne true as the incidents of schools closing for a lack of water were the exception during this difficult period for WASA.

Acting CEO Alan Poon King has sought to drive home the critical state of the nation's water situation, hosting press conferences next to dramatically dry water indicators at the Hollis Dam, but has been silent about strategies or planning by the authority to address the situation.

Poon King has publicly noted that WASA has significant interest in water and rain fall and maintains hydro-meteorological stations at all its major reservoirs and proudly noted that the authority’s monitoring system is more expansive than the Met Service’s. He has also acknowledged that the authority needs to be looking at data collection on a long-term basis.

To that might be added the need to monitor rainfall patterns outside the north-east of Trinidad, traditionally the greatest catchment area, to review where else water might be retained for public use. Anyone who has seen millions of gallons of water flooding homes and filling riverways has been viewed a fundamental shift in rainfall patterns over the last decade. 

That should be a matter of scientific analysis and planning for WASA, not an annual surprise.