Traffic backed up for miles on Saddle Road, Lower Santa Cruz, as residents of Febeau District blocked the road with burning tyres and metal objects from 5 am on Wednesday to protest the lack of pipe-borne water. River Road and Fernville residents also joined the protest near the entrance of the San Juan North Secondary School, Bourg Mulatresse. However WASA responded quickly to the plight of the residents and restored their supply.
As tempers flared the residents chanted : "We tired of the same thing over and over." Marsha Wright of River Road said she had no access to a regular supply of water for the last two months. "It have a pumping station about two kilometres from here. There is also a reservoir collecting water and WASA just coming and checking and going," she said. She added that because of the deplorable conditions of the road where she lives she was unable to get trucks to come up and deliver water.
A student of San Juan North Secondary School said school was dismissed early on many occasions because there was no water. Winston Almarales, systems supervisor of the North West Region of WASA, which is responsible for Bourg Mulatresse, Quarry Road, San Juan Old Road and environs said he was on vacation and realised how dire the situation had become only when a resident contacted him.
Almarales said he went to check the pumping station and saw that the tanks where water is stored for the area had a blockage in one of the pipelines thereby reducing the water supply. Almarales assured the protesters that he would work to have the problem resolved.
Councillor for the area Roger "Zoff" Celestine said water trucks had come into the area to try and provide water for the residents but they were still sceptical and would not be leaving the protest unless they were absolutely sure that the problem had been solved. He said the situation had been continuing for months. Celestine said it hurt his heart to know that senior citizens had to pay people to deliver water and that many children in the area could not attend school.
"I can't sleep because I know the people under pressure. I mean just for water in Santa Cruz people have to reach to this? Over two weeks now people can't wash their wares, they can't flush their toilets," he said. In an e-mail message to the T&T Guardian, Daniel Plenty, manager of corporate communications at WASA, said a truckborne supply was being made available to all affected residents.
"Water and Sewerage Authority advises customers from River Road and Fernville in the Grand Curucaye, lower Santa Cruz area who have been receiving an intermittent or reduced water supply that this is due to a suspected restricted flow emanating from the rural intake that supplies the community," he said. "A team from the authority's Operations Division has been working to identify the specific nature of the problem in order to take the necessary corrective action thereafter."