Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Pub­lic Util­i­ties, Clyde El­der, says the Gov­ern­ment re­mains com­mit­ted to trans­form­ing the wa­ter de­liv­ery ser­vice in To­ba­go.

He gave the com­mit­ment as he de­liv­ered the fea­ture ad­dress at WASA’s 60th an­niver­sary cel­e­bra­tions at the au­thor­i­ty’s com­plex in Low­lands, To­ba­go, on Wednes­day.

El­der and a team from the Wa­ter and Sew­er­age Au­thor­i­ty (WASA) held a closed-door meet­ing with To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine ear­li­er to dis­cuss plans for im­prov­ing wa­ter sup­ply on the is­land.

“That is why dur­ing our stay in To­ba­go, we made it a pri­or­i­ty to see the re­al­i­ties first­hand. We toured and dis­cussed the ma­jor projects that will boost wa­ter sup­ply and im­prove waste­water ser­vice across this is­land,” El­der said.

“We have projects in mo­tion al­ready, each one de­signed to turn decades of wa­ter in­se­cu­ri­ty in­to a new era of re­li­a­bil­i­ty. From Low­lands to Char­lot­teville, from Ma­son Hall to Scar­bor­ough, the mes­sage was clear—To­ba­go is ready for trans­for­ma­tion.
“And what we have seen and heard here will not re­main on pa­per; it is al­ready shap­ing our blue­print for tar­get­ed ac­tion and ac­cel­er­at­ed im­prove­ment.”

El­der said the plan is not to im­ple­ment tem­po­rary or patch­work so­lu­tions, but to trans­form wa­ter ser­vice de­liv­ery by up­grad­ing age­ing in­fra­struc­ture to re­duce leaks and loss­es; strength­en­ing To­ba­go’s wa­ter sys­tems with ur­gency and pre­ci­sion; de­liv­er­ing eq­ui­ty so that every fam­i­ly, busi­ness, and in­sti­tu­tion has ac­cess; and build­ing trust by en­sur­ing WASA op­er­ates with trans­paren­cy and ac­count­abil­i­ty.

He added that Gov­ern­ment would not rest un­til To­ba­go’s wa­ter nar­ra­tive changes from one of strug­gle to one of sus­tain­abil­i­ty and se­cu­ri­ty.

“For too many decades, the sto­ry of wa­ter in To­ba­go has been a sto­ry of strug­gle: in­ter­rupt­ed sup­plies, strained in­fra­struc­ture, and com­mu­ni­ties wait­ing far too long for change,” he said.

“The pa­tience of To­bag­o­ni­ans has been re­mark­able, but your frus­tra­tion has been just as re­al. And so, let me be clear: this Gov­ern­ment sees you, hears you, and is de­ter­mined that the cy­cle of wa­ter in­se­cu­ri­ty must come to an end.

“As out­lined in our na­tion­al pol­i­cy, To­ba­go de­serves fo­cused at­ten­tion, se­ri­ous in­vest­ment, and greater self-gov­er­nance.

“We are com­mit­ted to de­liv­er­ing im­proved tourism, trans­port, and in­fra­struc­ture, along­side eco­nom­ic op­por­tu­ni­ties tai­lored to To­ba­go’s unique po­ten­tial.”

Or­lan­do Kerr, the As­sis­tant Sec­re­tary of Pub­lic Util­i­ties, Set­tle­ment and Ur­ban De­vel­op­ment in the THA, said he was pleased El­der and the WASA team sought to con­sult with the THA dur­ing their time on the is­land.

“We would have had two days of site vis­its and an in­ter­est­ing meet­ing this morn­ing (Wednes­day), very, very pro­duc­tive meet­ing where we were able to sit and strate­gise, look at the short­com­ings and forge a way for­ward in terms of trans­form­ing wa­ter de­liv­ery on the is­land,” Kerr said.

“I want to com­mend them be­cause when they came to To­ba­go, they in­clud­ed the THA in their dis­cus­sions, and that did not al­ways hap­pen,” Kerr added.

As part of WASA’s 60th an­niver­sary cel­e­bra­tions, ham­pers were pre­sent­ed to ten long­stand­ing cus­tomers who had con­sis­tent­ly paid their bills on time.