The Government is embarking on an unprecedented billion-dollar upgrade of the water supply infrastructure at the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA), which is being funded by a US$315 million ($2.14 billion) conditional credit line from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and from the Public Sector Investment Programme (PSIP).
On its website, the IDB states that its water rehabilitation programme for T&T will directly benefit an estimated 1,025,000 residents (in 310,665 households), plus an additional 279,500 residents (in 84,705 households) in surrounding communities.
Approximately 16,841 business, agricultural, and industrial customers and charitable institutions in different supply areas will benefit as well, according to the IDB.
Public Utilities Minister, Marvin Gonzales, gave exclusive details of the capital expenditure on WASA, in an interview with the Business Guardian last week, even as around the country people are staging daily protests at the disruption to their lives caused by the lack of pipe-borne water to their homes.
Gonzales said he expects the procurement process for the IDB-funded projects to start at the end of September, for contractors to be selected for the projects by the end of 2023 and for the projects to be completed by the end of 2024.
“So that by January, at the start of the dry season, work will be starting on all of these projects: pipeline replacement work; water treatment plant refurbishment as well as two new modular plants,” said the Minister.
The IDB divided the US$315 million conditional credit line to T&T into three tranches, with the first approved tranche being a US$80 million ($544 million) loan to boost the efficiency, quality, sustainability, and resilience of Trinidad and Tobago’s drinking water supply and water security.
Projects outlined
According to WASA’s Environmental and Social Assessment studies for the programme of work, the projects in the first tranche to be undertaken by WASA and the Ministry of Public Utilities include:
* The refurbishment and upgrade of existing water treatment plants (WTP) at Guanapo, Navet and North Oropouche, which is expected to improve the amount and reliability of water supplied to an estimated 477,433 customers
–The Guanapo WTP, located in North East Trinidad, serves approximately 20,471 customers in the borough of Arima. The plant currently produces three imperial million gallons per day (IMGD) of potable water, with an additional 2.5 IMGD being planned
–The Navet WTP, serves approximately 271,000 customers in South Trinidad in areas such as Biche, Plum Mitan, Ortoire, Mayaro, Rio Claro, Tableland, New Grant, St Julien, Princes Town, Malgretoute, Barrackpore, Williamsville, Tabaquite, Bronte/Borde Narve, Buen Intento, St Mary’s, Manahambre, Cedar Hill, Gasparillo, Diamond
Village, Cocoyea and Ste Madeleine.
–The North Oropouche Water Treatment Plant, located in North-East Trinidad, produces approximately 20 IMGD of water which is supplied to approximately 185,962 customers in the region from Manzanilla to Arouca.
* The construction of new WTP in Goldsborough Tobago and Green Meadows in Santa Cruz.
On completion, the Goldsborough WTP will produce 1.67 imperial million gallons per day (IMGD) during the wet season and 900,000 IMGD during the dry season, improving the level of service to approximately 6,828 persons and alleviating supply issues in the Goodwood, Pembroke, and Glamorgan areas of Tobago;
Some 14,270 people living in the Santa Cruz are expected to experience an improvement in their water supply to 24 hours a day, five days per week, when the Santa Cruz (Green Meadows) Water Treatment Plant is completed. That facility will produce 4.5 IMGD in the wet season and 2.25 IMGD in the dry season.
* New wells are also approved for the Penal area – Clarke Road and for the Tucker Valley area, with associated pipelines.
–The new well proposed for the Penal area – Clarke Road #9 Well is expected to produce 636m3/day of raw water per day.
This increased availability of water should translate to underserved areas receiving a potable pipe borne supply of water more regularly, the target of a 24-hour supply, two days per week at Clarke Road and a 24 hour supply, four days per week at Tucker Valley, according to the WASA documents.
The Clarke Road Wells supplies potable water to several villages in south Trinidad such as Wilson Road, Digity Trace, Arjoon Trace, Old Clarke Road and parts of Clarke Road.
“The new well proposed for the Tucker Valley area- Tucker Valley #34 Well is expected to produce 1000m3/day. The Tucker Valley WTP supplies potable water to a number of villages in North West Trinidad such as Tucker Valley, Carenage and Chaguaramas.
“Often, settlements, particularly those on the extremities of the distribution network, face challenges in receiving a regular supply of water. Areas such as Clarke Road have been placed on temporary water schedules, particularly during the dry season, where water is supplied on a rotating basis, 24/1. The Tucker Valley Area’s current level of service is 24/2,” the WASA documents outlined.
The first tranche of the IDB loan has four components:
* US$44.7 million for urgent water supply stabilisation and improvement;
* US$2.2 million for support for water sector transformation by developing capacity and providing institutional strengthening to the Ministry of Public Utilities and WASA;
* US$30.3 million for urgent network optimisation to enhance network performance and reduce non-revenue water. Under this component, WASA will enter into a co-management, performance-based contract with a consulting firm that will be looking at non-revenue water (leakage and pilferage); and
* US$2.8 million to fund the operation of the project execution units at the Ministry of Public Utilities and at WASA.
Those project execution units were a condition precedent of the IDB lending T&T money for the rehabilitation of WASA given the “very, very bitter experience” the international financial institution had with T&T in the late 1990s under the Panday administration, said Gonzales.
“Once the projects in the first tranche are completed, we have already submitted our case for the second tranche, which would be US$150 million,” said the Minister.
The renovation of the three water treatment plants, the construction of two new plants and the drilling of new wells means that