KAY-MARIE FLETCH­ER

Se­nior Re­porter

kay-marie.fletch­er@guardian.co.tt

Op­po­si­tion MP and for­mer pub­lic util­i­ties min­is­ter Mar­vin Gon­za­les is call­ing for the re­moval of his suc­ces­sor, Bar­ry Padarath and the board and ex­ec­u­tive man­age­ment of the Wa­ter and Sew­er­age Au­thor­i­ty (WASA), ac­cus­ing the au­thor­i­ty of qui­et­ly in­creas­ing some plumb­ing in­spec­torate fees by as much as 700 per cent with­out in­form­ing the pub­lic.

But Padarath is de­fend­ing the in­creas­es, say­ing the fees had not been re­viewed since the 1980s and no longer re­flect­ed the cost to WASA for pro­vid­ing the ser­vices.

Speak­ing at an Op­po­si­tion me­dia con­fer­ence yes­ter­day, Gon­za­les claimed the new fees took ef­fect on Ju­ly 1, but stake­hold­ers and cus­tomers were not no­ti­fied.

He al­so al­leged that WASA’s web­site con­tin­ues to dis­play the old fees, leav­ing cus­tomers to learn of the in­creas­es on­ly when they vis­it WASA to make pay­ments.

Gon­za­les said, “To­day, the Op­po­si­tion is call­ing for the res­ig­na­tion of the Min­is­ter of Pub­lic Util­i­ties, the re­moval of the Board of WASA and the ex­ec­u­tive man­age­ment of WASA for what they have done to the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go.”

He added, “The man­age­ment of WASA in­creased those fees in some cas­es by 100 per cent. In oth­er cas­es by 200 per cent, up to 700 per cent ef­fec­tive Ju­ly 1st 2026, and guess what? They did not in­form the stake­hold­ers, and they did not in­form the na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty.”

Gon­za­les said the charges re­late to ser­vices pro­vid­ed by WASA’s In­fra­struc­ture and Com­pli­ance De­part­ment, which deals with in­spec­tions and ap­provals as­so­ci­at­ed with plumb­ing sys­tems and wa­ter and waste­water in­fra­struc­ture for new homes, build­ings and de­vel­op­ments.

Gon­za­les claimed WASA was seek­ing ad­di­tion­al rev­enue to meet its ex­pens­es.

He al­so ques­tioned why there had been no pub­lic an­nounce­ment about the in­creas­es and al­leged that af­fect­ed stake­hold­ers had not been con­sult­ed.

How­ev­er, re­spond­ing to Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, Padarath de­fend­ed the in­creased rates.

He said, “This was a de­ci­sion that was tak­en ear­li­er this year. I think in and around the end of May by the man­age­ment and rec­om­mend­ed to the board, and to which the board has agreed. This is a one time pay­ment and these pay­ments in terms of the rates have not been re­viewed since the 1980s and there­fore was has had to car­ry this cost so there­fore they have done a re­view of these rates, so as I said, it is a one time pay­ment with re­spect to the plumb­ing in­spec­torate and it is in keep­ing with rates that are cur­rent with the ex­pen­di­ture that is as­so­ci­at­ed with this type of ac­tiv­i­ty.”

The Min­is­ter al­so said there was no se­cre­cy in han­dling the mat­ter as the re­vised fee struc­ture ap­pears on the forms from Ju­ly.

Re­spond­ing to the call for his re­moval, Padarath said Gon­za­les must stop be­hav­ing like a “bac­c­ah­nal­ist”.

WASA fee in­creas­es

• Res­i­den­tial unit: From $150 to $1,200

• Mul­ti-fam­i­ly res­i­den­tial unit: From $150 to $1,200

• Com­mer­cial unit: From $200 to $1,500

• In­dus­tri­al: From $450 per floor to $1,800

• Res­i­den­tial swim­ming pool: From $500 to $1,800

• Com­mer­cial swim­ming pool: From $1,000 to $2,000