Water woes plague rural south Trinidad

Rosanna Baliram has lived in Ecclesville, Rio Claro, for more than 35 years and in that time, she says she’s never received a consistent water supply.

Baliram is just one of the area’s many residents asking the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) to address their water woes.

At the time of Newsday’s visit to Baliram’s Ledgen Street home on Thursday, she had not had water for a week.

She told Newsday, “We have real problems for water…look, we didn’t get none for this week yet.

“We’ve had this problem from ever since I’ve known myself living here.

“Sometimes we may get water twice for the week, sometimes it’ll be nearly two weeks we don’t get water, and sometimes it may be a whole month.”

Baliram has four water tanks and tries to conserve water. But despite her efforts, the water she gets is just not enough, especially when the area doesn’t get water for long periods.

She laments, “For me, if I get water once for the week and it comes with pressure, I usually fill up everything and it sometimes lasts.

“But what about people who have children, and they only have one tank?”

Shaffiron Mohammed lives a stone’s throw away. Over three years ago, Mohammed paid WASA to be connected to the area’s main line.

However, she’s still waiting for WASA to visit her home and do the necessary work.

A frustrated Mohammed told Newsday, “We apply for the water, we done pay and everything.

“Before covid, they said they would come and connect us…they never came.

“We pay $1,500 for the connection and they never came.”

Mohammed depends on heavy rain to fill her water tanks.

At times, she also gets an inconsistent supply of water from her aunt, who lives next door, or from the Mayaro/Rio Claro Regional Corporation

The situation is unsustainable, she says.

“I does pray to God for rain to fall to get some water, or otherwise I won’t get water.

“Right now my six tanks are empty – and I have three little children living here.

“I have the toilet to flush, I have house to mop and I have clothes to wash.”

Mohammed has built a small food shed in front of her house but has been unable to run it because iof the water problems.

Her daughter Shandie Shardie lives in Enid Village, not far from Ecclesville.

Shardie faces the same water problems but even when she does get an inconsistent supply, she says the quality is poor.

“The water that is coming in the pipe these days is very brown, like if they are sending mauby. And when they do send water, it’s all kind of 1 o’clock and 2 o’clock in the morning.”

“We would like to have water in the village a little more often so people can survive, because people in here have children.”

Driving along Rio Claro Mayaro Road, Newsday met Charran Francis.

At the front of his home, Francis had filled more than a dozen soft drink bottles below a standpipe. He told Newsday they are part of his water reserves.

“We don’t get water often. Sometimes we don’t get water for two weeks, and sometimes we have to buy water from the truck.

“This issue has been going on since we got water in the village around 2015.

“They (the authorities) talk about it a lot but nothing is happening.”

In Mafeking, Mayaro, residents are at breaking point and have lost hope that their water troubles will be resolved.

Because Tara Rampersad consistently calls WASA to complain about the area’s water issues, she claims she has been nicknamed “troublesome Tara” by the authority.

Rampersad lives in Bristol Road, Mafeking. When Newsday visited the street, Rampersad said it had not received a water supply for more than two weeks.

“If we don’t call, make a request and beg and beg and beg, we don’t even get the water.

“When we call WASA, they’ll say they have us on a standard list, which is three days for the week – and we don’t get that.”

“It’s been more than 15 days we don’t have water now. Right now, nobody in Bristol Road have water.”

Paul Prevatt was born and raised in Mafeking. He says the area didn’t usually have such serious water problems until WASA did work on pipelines there several years ago.

“They ran some lines on the two sides of the road and said it was to improve water problems in the area. But since they’ve run the lines, it’s been problems for water.

"Sometimes it’s a whole month we don’t get water."

The lines, he said, "were supposed to improve the water supply in the area, but instead of improving, it got worse.”

Prevatt and several other residents in the area told Newsday WASA had repeatedly said staff problems or damaged lines are the cause of the problems.

Deo Gangadeen told Newsday people who live between Mafeking Junction and Bristol Road are among the worst affected.

With households going up to three weeks without water at times, Gangadeen told Newsday he has become outspoken on the issue.

“Sometimes water may come three times for a week and then it goes for a next 24 days.

“We (in Mafeking) depend on the corporation to give us a tank or two of water when we don’t have now and how regular is that?"

He said the corporation has to supply the Mayaro/Rio Claro area.

He said Minister of Public Utilities Marvin Gonzales recently visited but nothing has changed since.

When Newsday spoke with Gonzales about the concerns of the residents in Ecclesville and Mafeking, Gonzales said they have not been ignored.

He said he is working with WASA, the regional corporation and Mayaro MP Rushton Paray to bring relief.

In a document sent to Newsday, Gonzales notes that two wells in the Mayaro area were recently put into action to improve the water supply. The document also outlined ongoing and future rehabilitation work to wells and pipelines in the Mayaro/Rio Claro region.

Newsday was unable to get a comment from Paray.