WASA: 12-hour supply disruption Thursday for maintenance

A major water disruption has been scheduled for Thursday for areas serviced by the Caroni water treatment plant.

The Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) said parts of north, central and south Trinidad will be affected from 6 am-6 pm, but this was necessary to facilitate planned maintenance work.

The plant, the largest in the country, produces 75 million gallons of water a day.

WASA CEO Alan Poon King said the authority has identified specific work to be done and allotted a 12-hour period for it.

“There is ongoing maintenance at the plant, but there are some activities that require the plant to be stopped. The nature of the work we are doing requires the flow be stopped to get to the components we needed to do work on.

“We are also taking the opportunity to do a number of activities, including electrical, control and civil works.”

Poon King said the system will take a while before it is fully restarted, and warned customers they may receive a  discoloured supply.

“We do not start the plant up immediately at 75 million gallons per day. We slowly ramp it up and put the initial set of water to waste so that we ensure the quality of the water is acceptable.”

He said reservoirs have also experienced favourable increases thanks to recent rainfall.

The Arena/Caroni reservoir is at 67 per cent compared to a long term average (LTA) of 82 per cent, the Navet reservoir is at 86 per cent compared to the LTA of 81 per cent, and the Hollis reservoir is at 94 per cent as compared to an LTA of 78 per cent.

Poon King also said there was a planned shutdown by Desalcott which has been scheduled for later in November. Details of this would be made public in the coming weeks, but he urged customers to store water adequately and conserve as much as possible.

And as water woes continue, MP for Caroni Central Arnold Ram issued a call on his Facebook page for constituents to sign a petition to highlight the lack of water in the area which, he said, has become unbearable and frustrating.

“The consensus brought forward after yesterday's (Tuesday's) meeting is to attach this petition to a formal letter addressed to the CEO of WASA and the Minister of Public Utilities Marvin Gonzales.”

Ram and several councillors held a constituency meeting on Tuesday at the Three Roads Hindu Temple, Freeport to discuss water, infrastructure and other issues.

He told Newsday on Wednesday there had been constant complaints of a lack of water for weeks.

“After three months in office, this is about the third or fourth time many residents are without water for about ten, 11 or 12 days. So it seems to be a regular occurrence where certain parts of Freeport into Preysal are being deprived of a regular water supply."

Ram said he is hoping the petition will grant him a meeting with Poon King and Gonzales to find solutions for Freeport and other affected areas in Caroni Central.

“I am going to write to Poon King and Gonzales for an urgent meeting within seven days, failing which I will go back to the constituents to decide any further course of action.”

Poon King said the shortage was caused by an issue with the raw water pipeline from the well field to Freeport, but this has since been rectified.

“Up to yesterday (Tuesday) had a major water disruption that we corrected, so having repaired that pipeline, the production of the plant has been brought back up to the level that it needs to be at.

“We are putting water into that Preysal area at present and would be in communication with the office of the MP, and residents also, to assure the situation has normalised.

“We have had issues in the past, which was that main, and that has been fixed. We will have a scheduled supply to ensure that the needs are met.”