Rudy: Constituents consider lawsuit over WASA potholes

COUVA South MP Rudranath Indarsingh said some of his constituents are considering a class action suit against WASA due to the number of potholes in their area.

He was speaking on Monday as the Standing Finance Committee considered the estimates and spending of the Public Utilities Ministry.

He said with the recent shut down of the desalination plant there were people waiting three and four days to get an acknowledgement from WASA to get an ID number for water.

“And up till today they have not gotten any sort of relief from WASA. So I don’t know what is the protocol or how they go about this truck-borne water supply.”

On road reinstatement, Indarsingh said if you drive on the Calcutta #1, #2 and #3 roads there are potholes as a result of what WASA has created for the last three and four years.

“The Balmain Main Road, extensively (has potholes). Up till this morning people call me because of the inconvenience. People are contemplating a class action suit on WASA because of the amount of potholes, wear and tear on their vehicles, burst tires. You name it. That is the track record.”

Indarsingh said the people continue to plead and beg when they cannot get equality of treatment.

Public Utilities Minister Robert Le Hunte said WASA does not discriminate when it comes to which roads to reinstate and he pointed out that in the East West Corridor there are roads similar to what Indarsingh described.

Chaguanas East MP Fazal Karim said road reinstatement has been a vexatious issue for road users. “When it is not properly done...it causes a lot of unnecessary traffic jam.”

He asked what was the policy and whether the minister was satisfied with the allocation and the quality of road reinstatement. Le Hunte said he understood that road reinstatement has been an issue and a big part of the issue was that WASA was a victim of its own improvement. He explained that the number of leaks has been reduced from 3,000 to 1,000 and with the heightened awareness and trying to deal with leaks there is a lot more road reinstatement work.

“I have heard the cries of a number of individuals.”

He said the focus remained on reducing leaks and WASA had “broken the back” of the leak problem in South and Central while north west Trinidad continued to be an issue with 800 leaks.

Karim asked if the minister was satisfied with the liaising between WASA and the Works and Transport Ministry and Le Hunte said that last year a lot of work was done on improving the relationship, establishing a time line and monitoring.

He added that sometimes the heavy equipment used to fix roads contribute to leaks.

“So right after you pave the roads then you have the leaks.”

Le Hunte said it would be nice to change all the pipes but the Government does not have the money for that.