STEPHON NICHOLAS

GML To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

The To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly is set to ex­pand its wa­ter tank sup­ple­ment pro­gramme to help vul­ner­a­ble fam­i­lies pre­pare for wors­en­ing dry con­di­tions.

Deputy Chief Sec­re­tary Dr Faith Breb­nor made the an­nounce­ment on Wednes­day dur­ing a work­shop in Scar­bor­ough fo­cused on build­ing com­mu­ni­ty re­silience for emer­gen­cies and nat­ur­al dis­as­ters.

Breb­nor said the pro­gramme will as­sist peo­ple who do not have wa­ter tanks by help­ing them ob­tain at least one tank for their house­holds.

“The di­vi­sion will ac­tu­al­ly im­ple­ment short­ly an ex­pan­sion of our wa­ter tank sup­ple­ment where we are go­ing to help in­di­vid­u­als who may not have wa­ter tanks to help them get at least one wa­ter tank for their fam­i­ly.”

Her an­nounce­ment came as Me­te­o­rol­o­gist Car­rie Chap­man-Du­mas, a se­nior of­fi­cial at the Trinidad and To­ba­go Me­te­o­ro­log­i­cal Ser­vice, warned To­ba­go could ex­pe­ri­ence drought-like con­di­tions be­tween the end of Au­gust and Oc­to­ber.

Chap­man-Du­mas said May, the be­gin­ning of the wet sea­son, pro­duced on­ly eight mil­lime­tres of rain­fall, while Au­gust rain­fall was at 66 per cent of its pro­ject­ed lev­el with on­ly a few days re­main­ing in the month.

“Yes, the rainy sea­son was de­clared in May, but it was the worst month thus far,” she said.

She said re­cent trop­i­cal waves have al­so failed to pro­duce sig­nif­i­cant rain­fall be­cause of the heavy pres­ence of Sa­ha­ran dust.

“It is bat­tling the trop­i­cal wave. Yes, the waves are com­ing off Africa as they nor­mal­ly would every five to sev­en days, but they are bat­tling a dry air. You may get an hour or two of rain­fall, but where is the rain falling?”

Chap­man-Du­mas said the Sa­ha­ran dust has been a ma­jor fac­tor af­fect­ing the trop­i­cal waves which nor­mal­ly bring rain­fall dur­ing the wet sea­son.

“The Sa­hara dust has been a se­ri­ous prob­lem con­tend­ing with those trop­i­cal waves that gives us our rain­fall dur­ing the rainy sea­son ... Some­time be­tween the end of Au­gust in­to Sep­tem­ber-Oc­to­ber, we are look­ing at drought-like con­di­tions for To­ba­go.”

She al­so warned res­i­dents to pre­pare for hot­ter con­di­tions in the com­ing months.

Chap­man-Du­mas said while re­cent tem­per­a­tures have been ex­treme, Trinidad and To­ba­go has not yet ex­pe­ri­enced an of­fi­cial hot spell.

She said a hot spell is de­fined as tem­per­a­tures of 33 de­grees Cel­sius or high­er for three to five days, or a pro­longed pe­ri­od of be­low-nor­mal rain­fall.

“Based on the Met Ser­vice da­ta, we have not met those cri­te­ria just yet. How­ev­er, the heat sea­son is com­ing.”

Chap­man-Du­mas warned of the im­pact hot­ter and dri­er con­di­tions could have on vul­ner­a­ble peo­ple.

“We are al­ready feel­ing it, so imag­ine as we go deep­er in­to our heat sea­son.

“What is that gonna say for the health of our el­der­ly, those who are com­pro­mised? Drought, dry spells, de­hy­dra­tion is gonna be a big prob­lem as we en­ter our heat sea­son.”

Breb­nor said she was stunned to hear tem­per­a­tures could rise fur­ther.

“When she said that, I ac­tu­al­ly asked aloud, ‘How is that pos­si­ble?’

“To think that it is go­ing to get hot­ter, it's hard to fath­om that,” she said.

She urged res­i­dents to take pre­cau­tions by stay­ing cool, cov­er­ing their heads when in the sun, tak­ing breaks and drink­ing plen­ty of wa­ter.

Breb­nor said she was not yet wor­ried about the im­pact of in­creased wa­ter de­mand when vis­i­tors ar­rive for To­ba­go Car­ni­val in Oc­to­ber.

“I am not con­cerned just yet. We are work­ing with WASA to im­prove the process of wa­ter sup­ply on the is­land. That has been a long­stand­ing is­sue and there are some short-term and long-term plans.”

She praised WASA for pro­vid­ing truck-borne wa­ter and en­cour­aged res­i­dents to con­tact the util­i­ty provider when they need a sup­ply.