The Wa­ter and Sew­er­age Au­thor­i­ty is cur­rent­ly in­ves­ti­gat­ing what ap­pears to be an il­le­gal dis­charge in the Ca­roni basin. Op­er­a­tions at the Ca­roni Wa­ter Treat­ment Plant was stopped around 7 am to­day be­cause of the ex­tra­or­di­nar­i­ly high tur­bid­i­ty in the raw wa­ter in the Ca­roni Riv­er.

How­ev­er, WASA says there has been no con­t­a­m­i­na­tion of the sup­ply leav­ing the plant as im­me­di­ate ac­tion was tak­en to stop op­er­a­tions up­on the de­te­ri­o­ra­tion in raw wa­ter qual­i­ty.

The fol­low­ing is the full press re­lease from WASA:

The Wa­ter and Sew­er­age Au­thor­i­ty (the Au­thor­i­ty) ad­vis­es cus­tomers served by the Ca­roni Wa­ter Treat­ment Plant that op­er­a­tions at the fa­cil­i­ty were stopped at 7:00 a.m. to­day – Tues­day March 2nd, 2021 due to ex­tra­or­di­nar­i­ly high tur­bid­i­ty in the raw wa­ter in the Ca­roni Riv­er.

The ab­nor­mal­ly high tur­bid­i­ty in the Ca­roni Riv­er ap­pears to be due to an il­le­gal dis­charge up­stream of the in­take to the plant. The Au­thor­i­ty is cur­rent­ly con­duct­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions in the Ca­roni Riv­er Basin to de­ter­mine the source of the dis­charge for ac­tion to be tak­en to ad­dress the sit­u­a­tion.

Cus­tomers are ad­vised that there has been no con­t­a­m­i­na­tion of the sup­ply leav­ing the plant as im­me­di­ate ac­tion was tak­en to stop op­er­a­tions up­on the de­te­ri­o­ra­tion in raw wa­ter qual­i­ty.

The Au­thor­i­ty ex­pects to re­store the plant to full op­er­a­tions as soon as the qual­i­ty of the raw wa­ter in the Ca­roni Riv­er im­proves to per­mit treat­ment to potable wa­ter stan­dard.

As a re­sult of this sit­u­a­tion, cus­tomers in the fol­low­ing ar­eas will ex­pe­ri­ence a dis­rup­tion in their ser­vice. North Trinidad: Curepe, San Juan, Barataria, Laven­tille, Mor­vant, St. Anns, Mor­vant, Cas­cade, Dibe, Long Cir­cu­lar, Port-of-Spain, St. James, Co­corite, Bel­mont, Gon­za­les and Mal­ick. Cen­tral and South Trinidad: Ca­roni Vil­lage, Kel­ly Vil­lage, Cunu­pia, Ch­agua­nas, En­ter­prise, Long­denville, Fe­lic­i­ty, Cara­pichaima, Wa­ter­loo, St. Mary’s, Cou­va, Cal­i­for­nia, Wind­sor Park, Clax­ton Bay, San Fer­nan­do, Mara­bel­la, Gas­par­il­lo, La Ro­maine, Debe, Siparia, South Oropouche, Rousil­lac, Av­o­cat and Fyz­abad

Cus­tomers are ad­vised that it may take up to 48 hours for the pipe borne wa­ter sup­ply to nor­mal­ize to some ar­eas af­ter the fa­cil­i­ty re­turns to op­er­a­tion. A lim­it­ed truck borne ser­vice will be avail­able to af­fect­ed cus­tomers, with pri­or­i­ty to Health In­sti­tu­tions, Gov­ern­ment Agen­cies and Homes for the Aged. For fur­ther in­for­ma­tion or as­sis­tance, cus­tomers can al­so con­tact WASA’s Cus­tomer Call Cen­tre toll free at 800-4420/26.

The Au­thor­i­ty apol­o­gis­es for the in­con­ve­nience caused and as­sures af­fect­ed cus­tomers that every ef­fort is be­ing made to have the wa­ter sup­ply re­turned in the short­est pos­si­ble time and cus­tomers will be kept in­formed of progress in this re­gard.