SHAR­LENE RAM­PER­SAD

Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Mar­vin Gon­za­les says he com­plete­ly sup­ports the Trinidad and To­ba­go Scrap Iron Deal­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion’s (TTSI­DA) call for a tem­po­rary ban on cop­per ex­ports.

Speak­ing dur­ing a rib­bon-cut­ting cer­e­mo­ny for the Lopinot Wa­ter Treat­ment Plant yes­ter­day, Gon­za­les said ag­gres­sive ac­tion needs to be tak­en to stop the theft of TSTT ca­bles, Wa­ter and Sewage Au­thor­i­ty (WASA) fix­tures and man­hole cov­ers.

On Mon­day, the TTSI­DA ap­pealed to the Min­istry of Trade and In­dus­try to tem­porar­i­ly ban the ex­port of cop­per, say­ing it was the on­ly way to stop the thefts that have be­come ram­pant across the coun­try.

In the past two years, two peo­ple were elec­tro­cut­ed while try­ing to steal over­head lines and a third was shot dead by a Cara­pichaima res­i­dent af­ter he and two oth­ers tried steal­ing lines in Cen­tral Trinidad.

“I sup­port that 100 per cent be­cause the mad­ness that we have now de­scend­ed to as a coun­try, in now at­tack­ing our util­i­ty in­fra­struc­ture, be it WASA, be it TSTT, be it Petrotrin, Min­istry of Works and Trans­port, man­hole cov­ers, this non­sense has to stop, and if they are putting for­ward a pro­pos­al to out­law the ex­port of this thing I ful­ly sup­port it,” Gon­za­les said yes­ter­day.

He said this was his per­son­al view but he be­lieves a cross-min­istry ap­proach was need­ed to prop­er­ly ad­dress this is­sue.

On Mon­day, his Cab­i­net col­league, Trade and In­dus­try Min­is­ter Paula Gopee-Scoon, said a ban was not be­ing con­sid­ered.

Yes­ter­day, Gon­za­les said if new laws are need­ed to stop these thefts, the Cab­i­net will work to­geth­er to make it hap­pen.

“We are talk­ing to each oth­er with a view to com­ing up with a pol­i­cy and if it re­quires leg­isla­tive in­ter­ven­tion, this is some­thing that we are more than pre­pared to do but this is some­thing that is caus­ing us some great anx­i­ety and we don’t in­tend to stand by and al­low this non­sense to con­tin­ue,” Gon­za­les said.

He said he has no is­sue with meet­ing the TTSI­DA on the is­sue.

“I think they are a crit­i­cal stake­hold­er, we will not take any ac­tion that is go­ing to im­pact on their in­dus­try and what­ev­er de­ci­sion that we ar­rive at it must have their in­put in it,” he said.

Gon­za­les said he was very dis­tressed af­ter see­ing re­ports that scrap iron thieves were tar­get­ing WASA lines for cop­per fit­tings. He said the au­thor­i­ty was al­ready strug­gling witht its man­date to pro­vide a re­li­able wa­ter sup­ply and these thieves were on­ly mak­ing the sit­u­a­tion worse.

CLICK FOR MORE NEWS