Without water since last August

THE EDITOR: The residents of 1387-1389 Naparima-Mayaro Road, Robert Village, Tableland, have been without a reliable water service since August 2019.

We are fully aware of the issues of aged infrastructure and the horrible condition of the pipelines in the area. If the water pressure is high or low, it makes no difference because it doesn’t reach us.

Truck-borne delivery has proven to be unreliable as well. I am awaiting a delivery since Holy Thursday. We got a call to confirm delivery and within a few minutes a young woman called to ask if we got water the night before. I told her no. I later found out that the truck drivers were sent to Mayaro instead.

We are dependent on a reliable truck-borne service because we don’t get water in the taps. Purchasing water will probably be the next step. This costs $475 a trip. But why should we have to buy water when we are already paying for the service?

One Harper has been trying to assist as he’s aware of the issues. A Rooplal paid us a visit two weeks ago to take a field report. He said they may have to replace the connection.

This is utterly frustrating especially in light of covid19 and the need to sanitise one’s self and property. We have elderly people and children at our residence, non-essential workers and the basics to take care of. Where are we to get water from?

I cannot afford to buy three tanks of water every other week to sustain our household. This is the same water that WASA is supposed to be providing.

Tuesday was especially difficult with the multiple bush fires in the area. Late that evening, I was forced to use our barrel water to create a fire lane as one of the fires reignited and threatened our property.

The Fire Service failed to respond as it had already left the area after battling blazes whole day and the Princes Town tender was in Moruga tackling a house fire. It was really tough to use the little we had to battle a fire which the pineapple farmers had probably started and lost control of.

I am again pleading for some solution be found. We are not getting water and even if the water pressure is high in the area, we still don’t get any.

DAMIAN GOPEE

via e-mail