WASA aims to improve Tobago supply as reservoirs filled

Tobago’s water reservoirs are said to be “filled and spilling.”

At a press conference on Tuesday at the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) Regional Complex in Lowlands, Senior Manager of Project Implementation Andrew Daniel made the disclosure.

October was a rainy month for the island, particularly last week.

“All of our reservoirs – Hillsborough and the King's Bay reservoirs, they are both filled and spilling at this point in time, " Daniel said. "So we are at a 100 per cent capacity, but of course, you must understand that those reservoirs don’t serve the entire island, they only serve certain areas, villages within the island itself.”

Head of WASA, Tobago Region, Brian Williams added that the authority is currently on a mission to ensure that adequate water supply is always readily available. He said one of the elements of the development programme is to create an integrated network.

“Courland water is only feeding Courland, so what we are working on is a network integrating the transmission grid so that we can import/ export from neighbouring zones when the need is required, or to take from areas of plenty, to serve areas of few.”

He noted that there are two major challenges with water supply on the island.

"We have the dry season challenges and we have rainy season challenges. All the customer is usually interested in is that when I turn on my pipe, I get some water – so we have to manage it on the back end.

"There is a shortage in the dry season, but in the rainy season there is an unavailability issue because of the challenges with the treatment.”

He said the island is challenged by the geography, so the programme also includes the development of booster stations as he made mention of a five-year community water improvement programme, which is already in year one.

“This is aimed at improving the level of service to customers in a very targeted way.”

He said it has been recognised that in order for the organisation to improve, there are several infrastructural works that must be undertaken.

He said these have been grouped into projects, to maximise the effectiveness of the process.

Questioned about timelines, he said the programme was developed and the works have already begun.

“It is an ongoing process, but we have targeted the next five years and we have just come to the end of year one. So the initiatives and the benefits that we are speaking to in this moment are the year-one initiatives.”

The programme, he said, is comprehensive. "In terms of the implementation of the items of work – development construction – it is well under way at this point. We’ve passed the planning stages and some of the other stages, we’re working to ensure that as time progresses, that we would be able to have them all implemented and redound to the benefit of the water supply to everybody in Tobago and the wider Trinidad and Tobago.”