Women and children made a heartfelt appeal to the Water and Sewerage Authority to send water to the residents of Caratal, central Trinidad.
Yesterday, Caratal resident Kerlin Huston said for the past six weeks the community had been without any supply from WASA.
She said calls to WASA for a free truck-borne service have proven futile since the authority takes over two weeks to fulfil these requests.
Huston said villagers have to resort to paying a tractor driver up to $200 to deliver a tank of water. Still, she praised the tractor driver for helping out the community.
Five-year-old Peyton Brereton said his family had only a half a tank of water and he was worried what would happen when the new school term starts next week.
To compound the community’s problems, Huston said the villagers have also been begging T&TEC for several years remove a metal pole that has been rotting at the base.
She said the post could collapse at any time and rash on several small children who play in the yard.
Chenique Mitchell from left Shanaya Ramcharan and Peyton Bereton point to a rotten pole where they play and fear it may collapse on them at any time.
Shastri Boodan
Six-year-old Shanaya Ramcharan said she was worried about herself and the other children in the community, as they feared the T&TEC pole could come crashing down on them.
When asked if Tabaquite MP Suruj Rambachan was helping residents, Huston said she heard he had retired.
Contacted yesterday, however, Rambachan said he has been writing to the relevant authorities but nobody was taking him on.
Rambachan said several areas in his constituency, including Cotton Hill, were also without water for more than a month.
He said in the last four years he has written over 500 letters to the authorities and only 50 had been acknowledged.
He said the last time he spoke about it in Parliament the Prime Minister told him he was wasting government stationery.
He said: “The residents in my constituency have been growing tired of hearing that the agencies have not been responding, but that’s the truth.
“The level of response has been abysmally low.” (Shastri Boodan)
