Water in the history of Tobago

Dr Rita Pemberton

THE TRAJECTORY of the history of Tobago has been influenced by water, both by its presence on and around the island or its absence and the manner in which it influenced policy decisions pertaining to the island.

Water has determined the location and size of the First Peoples settlements on the island and, as Kamau Brathwaite indicates, “The sea is history,” therefore the waters around the island were used by various groups of First Peoples in the region long before the European invasion. In addition, the survival of the resident First Peoples population was based on their exploitation of the marine resources in the surrounding waters.

Also, the presence of several bays and natural protected harbours around the island facilitated the activities of the various Europeans who competed for possession of the island and the pirates, privateers and buccaneers, who preyed on shipping, raided estates and/or engaged in illegal trading with the estates while serving as spies for one European country or another.

The water around Tobago was therefore the scene of battles between the European countries which were locked in conflict for possession of the island across the 17th and 18th centuries. Water, therefore, functioned as both a facilitator and inhibitor to human activities and water considerations influenced imperial policy.

Water was central to plantation operations, affected planter/worker relations during the post-Emancipation years and the lack of water affected the population and became a central issue in the politics of the island across the 20th century.

When the island was established as a British possession, the recognition that water played a vital role in agricultural resource exploitation, which was the primary interest of imperial Britain, led to the inclusion of a land reserve for the attraction of rains to feed the soil for production enhancement. This decision was guided by scientific influence, which used the Barbados situation as a guide with respect to land use in Tobago and other new island settlements.

The two islands were compared and while Tobago was described as “wild and untouched,” in contrast by 1655 Barbados was totally deforested because its forest cover was removed to establish plantations and its sole remaining woodland was at Turner’s Hall. Since the early 17th century, Tobago was used as a reliable source of hardwood timbers for Barbados, whose residents visited for cedar, locust and mastic, among other species.

Reports of declining fertility on that island helped to convince the British parliamentarians to support a measure in Tobago through which a management policy to control rainfall, in order to prevent the degeneration of land, would be implemented. Forests were seen as rain reserves and a component of climate control. The establishment of the first forest reserve in the hemisphere, which protected the forests to attract rain and the main water sources of the island, was the outcome.

The bounties of water and the healthy growth of wood which it stimulated, were advertised as demonstrations of the island’s potential for bringing profitable returns to encourage investors when the British land demarcation and sale of lots for plantation establishment was underway.

The bays around the island have been important for the extraction of maritime resources during the era of enslavement and they provided the formerly enslaved population with a means to supplement the meagre wages, which were characteristic of the years after Emancipation.

Water was central to plantation operations. There were instances when streams were diverted to provide a water supply for domestic activities and a cooling environment around the planters’ residence. Water was also used as a source of power to drive the sugar mills on several estates. In 1771 there were two water-powered sugar mills on the island; the number increased to three in 1772 and by 1775 there were nine, and ten in 1786. However, recent archaeological findings indicate that the use of water power on plantations in Tobago was more widespread.

Before Emancipation, the enslaved people received their water supply from the estates. This changed dramatically in the era after 1838 when there was no specific arrangement for their settlements to be supplied with water. As a result, access to water from the plantations constituted an area for negotiation between planter and worker, which made the latter subject to the exactions of the employer and was a contributor to the conflicts which occurred during the post-Emancipation years.

The freed population depended on contaminated water, which was obtained from wells, springs, rivers, ponds and cisterns. The supply situation worsened during the dry season when water was in short supply in Scarborough and parts of the leeward districts. Not surprisingly, dysentery was ever present on the island.

The springs at Darrell Spring and Kings Well in the Cook River provided water to Scarborough and its environs. This was inadequate, especially since water from the latter source was only available for a few hours a day when the facility was open. In 1903 Scarborough received a pipe-borne water supply from Spring River and the springs located in Darrell Spring, which was piped through four standpipes to the lower town.

The rest of the population remained without potable water, which was the cause of an outbreak of dysentery in 1912, and which spread across the island from the south-western and northern villages. This outbreak, which produced 3,179 cases and caused 466 deaths in six months, reflected the insanitary state under which the mass of the population lived.

The lack of potable water forced the population to rely on contaminated water sources which were used for domestic purposes while a lack of adequate infrastructure for waste disposal in the communities contributed to continued pollution of water sources.

Although Scarborough and parts of the leeward area were served with a water supply in 1927 when the Green Hill waterworks became operative, dysentery remained endemic on the island up to the first half of the 20th century because the mass of the population was still forced to use polluted water.

The need for a water supply was considered urgent both for reasons of health and safety. Urgent need for a proper water supply was underscored since the outbreak of the Main Street fire on November 27, 1882, when the authorities were unable to respond to the crisis. The fire was extinguished by a female bucket brigade, but the authorities remained financially unable to fund a water supply for Scarborough and, indeed, the rest of the island.

The history of water in Tobago shows how water issues affected the island’s population from the First Peoples to the European and Africans, both by its presence and absence. It affected and was affected by imperial concerns and law, and it impacted on relations between the various groups which made the island their home.

Water provides a lens through which aspects of the history of Tobago could be unravelled.