NGC, WASA to work to ease water woes

The National Gas Company (NGC) has offered its services through technological support and by making resources available to the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) to try to ensure the constant reoccurring problems that plague customers are resolved quickly or prevented.

The technological support includes e-auctioning, assets integrity through sharing pipeline software and a risk programme and to pinpoint leaks so said Mark Loquan, the president of NGC, who also served as a commissioner at WASA in the early 2000s.

During the signing of a memorandum of understanding at the Public Utilities Ministry on Wednesday, Loquan said, “It’s done in a proper risk framework and you can sort of prioritise where to put your energy and what to deal with before things happen.”

E-auctioning, he explained, is a digital process in which the participating company is asked to specify what is needed before being placed in an online “room” to compete against other buyers.

He added that a geographic information system will be used to pinpoint leaks and allow for engineers to have access to NGC’s information systems.

Also discussed were sustainability in the context of climate change – water conservation for agriculture and food security – as TT and the region are not immune to famine, flooding or droughts.

Loquan said a climate change and resilience portal will be launched which will be available for everyone and will show the flooding patterns of the country.

Chairman of WASA Ravindra Nanga said NGC practically broke down the door to work with WASA under previous management, but was turned down. He said when NGC approached WASA again, it came with an offer, but the very next day, the 48-inch pipeline at the Caroni Water Treatment Plant ruptured and over 250,000 customers were affected.

He said, “To say we were put in a tailspin is an understatement, because we were not quite sure what we were dealing with. But thankfully, NGC was on board with us from minute one and was providing assistance.”

“In fact, currently we are installing a new line and we have (equipment and capacity) redundancy plans in place as well, but immediately, we are installing a new line.”

Nanga said costs have not been discussed yet, but NGC provided the majority of the 48-inch pipes to begin the installation and with an Inter-American Development Bank loan which WASA is due to receive next year, pipelines will be replaced.

He added, “We have already started installing loggers, so that we will be starting automation of our network. The executive recruitment has been completed and we are awaiting the final approvals to bring them aboard; there are a few positions that we need to go back out for, but that should be done in a short space of time.”

Loquan added, “I know what this will boil down to is not only the will of the people at this table – the board and management – but it will take leadership and the steering committee and resources working in a manner that says progress is being made or not. And we can see and we can communicate through our respective boards that this is happening well.

“Once we have that sort of governance and working structures in place, which we still have to do, I think you stand a good chance of getting the full value of this relationship.”

Loquan and Nanga signed the MoU. It was overseen by Public Utilities Minister Marvin Gonzales; Dr Joseph Ishmael Khan, chairman of NGC; and Alston Fournillier, deputy chairman of WASA.