RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

As wa­ter short­ages con­tin­ue across parts of the coun­try trig­ger­ing spo­radic protests, Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Mar­vin Gon­za­les says he will con­tin­ue up­grades of key in­fra­struc­ture to im­prove wa­ter dis­tri­b­u­tion. He al­so promised to con­tin­ue crack­ing down on mis­man­age­ment and cor­rup­tion at the Wa­ter and Sew­er­age Au­thor­i­ty.

Speak­ing at the com­mis­sion­ing of the La For­tune wa­ter treat­ment plant at Dam Road, Point Fortin, Min­is­ter Gon­za­les said many of WASA’s key in­fra­struc­tur­al plants need­ed up­grades.

Over the next month, he said four more wa­ter treat­ment plants will be up­grad­ed and recom­mis­sioned at North Man­zanil­la, Tamana, Wharf Trace, Tu­na­puna and Ram­jat­tan Trace, Pe­nal.

This will im­prove wa­ter dis­tri­b­u­tion for 50,000 house­holds. He not­ed that these short term in­vest­ments are be­ing done across the coun­try.

“In the next two years our fo­cus will not be on­ly on wa­ter pro­duc­tion but we are al­so look­ing to cor­rect the state of WASA’s in­fra­struc­ture so it can trans­mit the wa­ter all across the coun­try,” Gon­za­les said.

He said the La For­tune plant had been out of op­er­a­tion since 2013, de­priv­ing cit­i­zens of a re­li­able wa­ter sup­ply. 

Gon­za­les said when he took up his Min­is­te­r­i­al po­si­tion he re­al­ized that mis­man­age­ment and cor­rup­tion at WASA were cost­ing tax­pay­ers bil­lions of dol­lars.

 “I could not see mis­man­age­ment and cor­rup­tion and not say any­thing about it. Mis­man­age­ment is a key is­sue that has im­pact­ed the op­er­a­tions of WASA and is the very rea­son why peo­ple are not get­ting wa­ter.”

Giv­ing an ex­am­ple, Gon­za­les said, “$294 mil­lion was spent on the Ca­roni Du­alling pipeline project yet not one buck­et of wa­ter was poured in­to that mas­sive project.”

He said since he launched the Com­mu­ni­ty wa­ter im­prove­ment projects he had met sev­er­al se­nior tech­nocrats and ju­nior em­ploy­ees who have been work­ing long hours and week­ends with­out over­time to get the job done.

Mean­while, May­or Kennedy Richards Ju­nior said he was pleased that the project had been ex­e­cut­ed in record time. Richards said he hoped to have sim­i­lar projects done at the wa­ter treat­ment plants at Granville, Techi­er, Chatham and Ica­cos.

Richards said now that the new plant had been com­mis­sioned 5,000 house­holds will be able to en­joy re­li­able pipe-borne wa­ter.

“We have res­i­dents from New Vil­lage, South­ern Gar­dens, Coun­try Trace, Fan­ny Vil­lage who have been with­out wa­ter and they usu­al­ly are up late wash­ing as they get wa­ter once per week,” Richards said.

One res­i­dent, Ani­ta George said since the plant came on stream she has been re­ceiv­ing a reg­u­lar wa­ter sup­ply. George said she has been vo­cal on the ra­dio com­plain­ing about wa­ter and she was pleased with the progress made by WASA in the in­fra­struc­ture up­grades. 

Be­fore the com­mis­sion­ing of the plant res­i­dents were ser­viced by the de­sali­na­tion plant. How­ev­er, now that the plant is on stream, WASA pro­duces an ad­di­tion­al 500,000 to 600,000 gal­lons per day from the near­by dam.

When the Wa­ter Treat­ment Plant in Point Fortin went out of com­mis­sion more than 2,500 res­i­dents were de­prived of a reg­u­lar wa­ter sup­ply.