leeanna.maharaj@guardian.co.tt
Despite the promise of a restored water supply, hundreds of thousands of residents from Sangre Grande and Siparia are without pipe-borne water. This is according to the Chairman of the Sangre Grande Regional Corporation, Anil Juteram, and Chairman of the Siparia Regional Corporation, Dinesh Sankarsingh.
Last Wednesday, at a press conference, the Acting Chief Executive Officer of the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) announced that 100,000 customers from Sangre Grande and 15,000 from Siparia who were without water could expect a resumption of their supply that very evening. These communities were two of the many affected by severe flooding following inclement weather a few weeks ago.
Speaking to Guardian Media on Tuesday, Juteram said, “People who were flooded out, they still haven’t been able to get a pipe-borne water supply to clean up, and these people were flooded out 11 times for the month of November.”
He said these are places such as Guy Trace, North Oropouche, Riley Land Settlement, Crow Crow Bar Extension, and Leemonde.
“[Cleanup operations are] not going all that well, because we don’t have water to sanitise and so on, so people who were flooded out they still haven’t been able to get a pipeborne water supply to clean up. From the time I wake up in the morning, about 75 WhatsApp calls on my phone, where people asking and begging for water, and the thing about it is police stations, health centres, the hospital in Sangre Grande, schools, well thank God schools closed now, but even civic centres like community centres, we have to supply water because they have functions and we have to supply water [to them],” he added.
He said he is worried residents will not receive a proper water supply for the Christmas period into the new year.
Some of the affected areas in Sangre Grande are Coalmine, parts of Vega, Melajo, Fishing Pond, North Oropouche, Manzanilla, Tamana.
Chairman of the SRC, Dinesh Sankersingh shared the same concern.
“Several homes were affected and if you were to tabulate the number of homes that were affected alone, it’s over a hundred homes and the individuals would be definitely more than that. With the upcoming Christmas season, people want to do the required cleaning and put away their homes and houses and things like that, and water is a basic necessity.
“If it’s not available, it makes it very difficult for them. So, I am joining the people to appeal to WASA, please make the water available to us, in a limited capacity, nonetheless.”
Sankersingh added that the SRC is limited in its resource but is trying to assist as many people as possible.
WASA’s CEO Kelvin Romain addressed the issue.
“The plant would have restarted that particular day (last Wednesday) with regard to the northern areas to offer the north plant, those areas would have been further affected because the following day we would have had to do some maintenance on the plant to that plant, we would have had a media release, I believe, for that Thursday so, the areas would have been affected with a no supply.’
“What I could speak to know the plant is back up and in operation, albeit not at 100 per cent. But we would have made arrangements to ensure certain areas would have been served,” he said
Romain said he was told by WASA’s Director of Operations that the Sangre Grande areas received a supply. He added that WASA is constantly working to improve the service.
He also mentioned that WASA is conducting work in the Penal/Debe region and planned to work in the Siparia region today.
“With regards to Siparia, that area is still reeling from the effects of the desalination plant being out. We are focusing on that area tomorrow. What we are trying to do is hold to the schedule and not go out of schedule, so my intention is to stick to a schedule.
“I mean, Christmas time is upon us I know everybody is particularly in the cleaning mode and you would want to know, at least you don’t want to have that knowledge of when it is that you will receive a supplier and when you’re not going to receive a supply at least, so I want to hold and stick adamantly to our schedule. So, I am developing some schedules, I would have instructed the director of operations to develop some schedules so that we can present to the to our customers in that Siparia area, as well as Trinidad,” he said.
Responded to reports of residents who applied for truck borne water supplies but were unsuccessful, Romain said, “Because of the frequency of the requests and because of the limited resources that we would have had to supply everyone, it wouldn’t be forthcoming in terms of addressing all at the same time. In hard-hit areas, we would have directed the resources to those areas,” he said.
He also reminded customers that they can reach him at his WhatsApp text-only hotline 493-4236.