SHALIZA HASSANALI
Senior Investigative Reporter
shaliza.hassanali@guardian.co.tt
Armed with two dingy buckets, Deoragie Baldeo walked almost two miles from her Marquis Road, Manzanilla, home to a spring in the community, to fetch water. Trekking to and from Manzanilla Junction, where the spring is located, has become a daily routine for the 68-year-old mother of ten.
The pensioner also navigates up and down a treacherous slope a mile from her rickety hovel to fetch water or wash clothes in a shallow river. Having faced a tough life, Baldeo has never experienced the joy of opening a tap in her home. She grew up using spring, rivers, or rainwater to do her daily chores. It’s her only means of getting water. Baldeo is one of hundreds of citizens in the northeastern region without a pipe-borne supply.
Spoutings hooked up to plastic drums and water tanks can be seen in almost everyone’s yard in Manzanilla—evidence of the hardship faced in getting the essential commodity.
Managing without water has been an upward struggle for Baldeo. Her children and grandchildren have also endured the same fate. “It’s like a generational curse,” she said. The pensioner wondered when this curse would end. This year’s harsh dry season has affected Baldeo and her neighbours significantly.
“The water in the river dry up and I barely got anything from the spring. Even my tanks were dry because of no rainfall. We real catch we tail for water. This is the worst I have seen in years. For nearly three months, we had no water,” Baldeo complained. Baldeo admitted that she could not afford a truckload of water priced between $400 and $600 and had to do without it.
Once a month, she said, the Sangre Grande Regional Corporation (SGRC) would supply the villagers with truck-borne water. “When the corporation truck comes, they giving you a little bit of water. It ain’t even filling half the tank. We have to ration the water to do everything.” The corporation would also fill the three communal tanks in the village. “The minute them tanks full out the road people coming to take the water. They ain’t leaving none for nobody. If someone house burning in the back here, it ain’t have a drop of water to put out the flames.”
Struggling in Plum Road
Not far away at Plum Road, resident Deonarine Narine said he was fed up of toting water from the communal tank situated a stone’s throw from his home. This small community also has no pipe connection.
“I have been toting water for decades. Nothing has changed for us. We are not progressing but regressing as a country. Tell me, in this day and age, people still have to tote water to their homes when people are paying taxes.”
Like Baldeo, Narine said this dry season was a disaster. “It was pressure—that was real pressure. I had to steady go out the road to get water. Sometimes when you go, you have to come back empty-handed.”
Ralph Hamid said the unavailability of water has been a long-standing issue in the sleepy village.
He said, “Nobody cares about the people in the back here. This village is forgotten and neglected.” Regardless of which government is in power, he said, the cycle of suffering continued.
Residents of Pine Settlement plead and beg
At Pine Settlement, Sangre Grande, chef Cindy Dickson is one of several residents with no access to pipe-borne water. In this squatting settlement, Dickson captures rainwater in four large tanks.
The last time the single mother bought water from a private water truck was in 2022. The water, she said, was “dutty”. Dickson, 54, had to ask the truck operator to return the $400 she paid for the 800 gallons of water.
“I don’t know where he got that water, but it was not even good to bathe my little pot hound dog.”
The mother of one does not rely on the corporation for water. “I does use my rainwater wisely. But I does feel real sorry for them single mothers who have to walk more than a mile to full water at a standpipe at Madhoosingh Road. Sometimes people would put down their names at the corporation to get water, and when the trucks come, their names are not on the list.”
Venting her feelings about the country’s water crisis, Dickson said people should not be facing trials and tribulations for the essential commodity. “Water is something people should not be denied. Water is life. Why do people have to plead and beg for water?”
Tank removed from Farm Road
In April, the Sangre Grande Regional Corporation (SGRC) had to remove one of the communal tanks at Farm Road, Sangre Grande, after receiving complaints that a female resident had been monopolising the water.
On Friday, the villagers confirmed to the Sunday Guardian that the tank had been taken to another location in the village. They said the woman took her washing machine to the 1,000-gallon tank to do her laundry.
“She ran about 200 feet of electrical cord from her home to the tank for the machine to work. It sounds unbelievable, but she spent the entire day by the tank washing her clothes. This woman had no consideration for others. It was an act of selfishness,” said one villager.
“She just made a bad situation worse because nobody has access to water now.” Another resident, Arnold Ramdass, said he never sourced water from this controversial communal tank.
“You could never get water from that tank. So I had to obtain water elsewhere.”
In the back of his van, Ramdass stacks 15 oil kegs, which he fills from a standpipe on Picton Road. Ramdass makes six trips in one evening. That task takes him six hours. He does this twice a week.
“What is laborious is filling my tank manually. That is what does kill me. Then I have to get up the next morning to go to work. Sometimes you are so tired you can barely function. It takes a toll on your body. You ask yourself when the water woes will end,” Ramdass said.
Sour faces at Sugars Lane
Low water pressure and an inconsistent water supply have left residents of Sugars Lane in Sangre Grande sour. Resident Jason Francis said the community had much to celebrate after pipelines were installed late last year in their squatting village. Francis said he waited nine years for the installation.
“We were so excited to get water, but our anxiety turned into disappointment when we realised the water pressure is always low, and by the time you blink, it’s gone.”
He said the water would return in ten to 14 days. The father of three said he had to return to the days of fetching water at a standpipe.
“God knows we went through hell and back for water this dry season. At least the rainfall we are getting now will lighten our burdens and headaches.”
Continues on page 9
One of Francis’ neighbours, who identified herself as “Sugars”, said she was constantly being billed for water she was not receiving. “I get a bill for almost $10,000. I not paying it.”
She also complained about the poor water pressure. “When we get the water, it trickling. Come on, WASA, you have to do better than that. We have to praise God for the rain; otherwise, crapaud smoke we pipe.”
Shekinah Drive residents’ predicament
Living at Shekinah Drive, Valencia, Keith Alexander, 68, and his wife, Carril, have faced trouble for water since moving into the squatting area in 2019.
Alexander said the community had two options: water or electricity.
“They choose electricity, and this is the predicament we are in today. We never had pipelines installed here. So everybody is going through the same drama.”
Every Friday, the SGRC delivers water to the affected residents. As head of the Tattoo Trace Committee Development, Alexander said he has been pushing the squatting village to apply to WASA for connection.
Selected communities get water; relief programme shelved
Chairman of the (SGRC) Kenwyn Phillip identified 96 communities in the electoral districts of Manzanilla/Fishing Pond, Sangre Grande North East, Sangre Grande West, Sangre Grande South, Valencia East/Toco, Valencia West, and Vega de Oropouche that are devoid of pipe-borne water.
He told Guardian Media that he had proposed a water relief programme in the communities but had to shelve the plan. The 2024 plan would have provided water to 3,017 households that live in 96 squatting communities and unplanned developments.
Phillip said the programme could not be rolled out as the Government failed to release its 2023–2024 budget allocation of $750,000 for contracted water trucking services in the dry season.
The corporation was allocated $84 million in the 2023–2024 budget. Only last month, Phillip said, the corporation received confirmation of the funds for the contracted water service during the rainy season. This service, he said, would have better assisted burgesses struggling for water in the dry season.
“We are in the process of putting out advertisements for the contracted water tenders.”
Soon, tenders will go out for the award of contracts. He said the contracted trucks would have delivered 126,000 gallons of water daily to 3,017 households without pipe-borne connections in seven of its eight electoral districts.
Residents would have received water every two days.
A breakdown of the extensive list showed that in Manzanilla/Fishing Pond, 576 households would have benefited from the contracted trucks. In Valencia West, a total of 1,278 households would have received water. While 1,163 households in Valencia East/Toco and Sangre Grande South, NorthEast, and Northwest would have been provided with the service.
These communities rely on rain, spring, or river water.
Outside of the 96 areas, Phillip said the corporation has also been providing 28 communities in the region that get poor water service from the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA).
Phillip said each contracted truck would have been required to deliver five trips daily, totalling 6,000 gallons. A total of 105 trips were projected to be delivered each day.
Last year, the corporation paid contracted truck operators between $900 and $1200 for each 1,200 gallons of water they transported.
“We are obligated to service these areas. It’s enshrined in the act that the corporation is responsible for providing areas that are devoid of pipe-borne water.”
Phillip said the corporation was overwhelmed with calls by burgesses seeking a truck-borne supply during the blistering dry season.
The corporation had to service the entire northeastern region utilising its three in-house water trucks that have outlived their usefulness.
Once a week, the trucks would deliver water to burgesses, forcing many to dip deep into their pockets to buy the essential commodity from private truck operators, who charge upwards of $300 a truckload.
These trucks would distribute 16,800 gallons of water daily. They are also responsible for filling the 40 communal tanks in the region.
“Our trucks had to work overtime, and we still could not facilitate everyone,” he said. The corporation racked up an overtime bill of $80,000.
No response from Faris
Guardian Media was unable to get Minister of Local Government and Rural Development Faris Al-Rawi to address Phillip’s claim. A list of questions was also sent to WASA’s deputy chairman, Alston Fournillier, but up to late yesterday, no responses were provided.