Starved of wa­ter for more than three weeks, Pe­nal res­i­dents say they are spend­ing thou­sands of dol­lars to pur­chase wa­ter in what they say is a great wa­ter con­spir­a­cy.

The res­i­dents be­lieve the con­spir­a­cy ex­ists be­tween WASA of­fi­cials and pri­vate con­trac­tors who sell wa­ter in the starved ar­eas for $300 to $800 per tank. Farm­ers whose crops are dy­ing say they pay as much as $1,000 for four tanks of wa­ter. They be­lieve that mid­dle man­age­ment su­per­vi­sors from WASA were redi­rect­ing wa­ter and get­ting a per­cent­age of funds from pri­vate con­trac­tors once wa­ter is sold.

At Solomon Knox Street at La­choos Road, Pe­nal, res­i­dents say the vil­lage pond has once again be­come pop­u­lar be­cause many peo­ple could not af­ford to buy wa­ter.

The spring wa­ter from the pond is usu­al­ly most­ly used to feed their an­i­mals and wa­ter plants.

Wood­work­er Glen­ford Ram­nar­ine said since April 2 they have not re­ceived any wa­ter.

He said in 2010 the area got a pipe-borne sup­ply for the first time and the vil­lage pond no longer at­tract­ed crowds.

“Now it seems we have to go back to us­ing pond wa­ter be­cause many of us can­not af­ford to buy wa­ter,” he said.

Ram­nar­ine said the last time they suf­fered for wa­ter was in 2017.

“I am up­set be­cause we have to pay WASA bills and still pay con­trac­tors for wa­ter,” he said.

How­ev­er, farmer Selvin Gal­lai said he was con­vinced it was a con­spir­a­cy.

“In Trinidad, every­thing is a con­spir­a­cy,” Gal­lai said.

He added that his let­tuce farm has been get­ting wa­ter from the pond which he pumps dai­ly.

“No wa­ter to flush toi­lets or wash dish­es. We have no prob­lem with the farm be­cause we get­ting wa­ter from the earth and that is what we use. We have bought over $1,000 in wa­ter. We have to pay WASA and still buy wa­ter,” Gal­lai said.

“Not every­body can af­ford to buy wa­ter. When we call WASA they say keep pay­ing your bill,” he laughed, adding, “They think we are a bunch of id­iots. They don’t have time with us. We call this ex­ten­sion and that ex­ten­sion, phone get cut off and we. This is po­lit­i­cal vic­tim­i­sa­tion be­cause here is Kam­la seat so we can­not get wa­ter.

“When we do get the wa­ter it comes at 12 in the night. I don’t know if we are man­i­cous or men? We have to wake up all night to catch wa­ter. Why can’t they send wa­ter for us dur­ing the day?”

Res­i­dent Lutch­min Sinanans­ingh said she was con­cerned that some parts of La­choos Road had wa­ter 24/7 but oth­er ar­eas were with­out wa­ter for weeks.

“When the wa­ter comes the pres­sure is so low we can­not even fill our tanks. When they do send wa­ter it comes for a few hours late at night. We can­not even get a truck-borne sup­ply,” she lament­ed.

Mean­while, at Gopie Trace, a man was seen fill­ing wa­ter a stand­pipe. At Ridge­wood Gar­dens, Gol­con­da, res­i­dents said they have not had wa­ter in more than six days. Pe­nal/Debe Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion chair­man Dr Allen Sam­my said wa­ter prob­lems have reached cri­sis lev­els.

“We have ex­haust­ed all funds for wa­ter de­liv­ery. Some ar­eas such as Debe Main Road, Pe­nal Rock Road and all the side traces are in deep trou­ble for wa­ter,” Sam­my said.

He added that the area was sup­plied from the Navet Dam and the De­sali­na­tion Plant.

“Navet has re­duced its dai­ly sup­ply from 25 mil­lion gal­lons per day to 15 mil­lion gal­lons per day. There is no ques­tion that the Gov­ern­ment is un­able to man­age wa­ter re­sources,” Sam­my said.

Asked whether he be­lieved there was a con­spir­a­cy, Sam­my said this ex­ist­ed nine years ago.

“I have no doubt that some peo­ple may be try­ing to de­fraud oth­ers of their right to wa­ter. I am not sur­prised by these re­ports,” Sam­my said. WASA has, how­ev­er, urged peo­ple not to pay for wa­ter. Any­one sell­ing wa­ter should al­so be re­port­ed to the au­thor­i­ty.

Need wa­ter?

The Au­thor­i­ty says any­one re­quest­ing a truck-borne wa­ter sup­ply can con­tact WASA Toll Free (24hrs)

800-4H2O (800-4420/6)

800-LEAK (800-5325)