It is difficult to understand how the Government can charge you for water and then tell you how or what you can use it for. Surely when you pay for something you have a right to use it how you want. It's like giving us something with one hand and taking it back with the other, after you have paid for it.
It is my view that things should never have gotten to this stage. We, in the western peninsula, had a great opportunity to increase our water supply from the WASA wells located in the property opposite West Mall, but rather than exploiting the opportunity to increase our supply, the City Corporation and WASA got into a big brawl about who owned the property. The end result is that it was given to the City Corporation who, without any consideration to the citizens of our country, decided to set up a park. So in the final analysis we were deprived of the opportunity to improve our water supply.
Over the past few weeks it has been observed that they are now dumping fill on the property which, in the process, will more than likely cover all of the wells that WASA intended to rejuvenate to increase the water supply.
Further, this water problem exists every dry season yet the Government is yet to come up with a plan to save extra water for this event. Some years ago a proposal was sent to the Government which suggested that they place water storage tanks with a capacity of 1.2 or 1.4 million gallons in various locations in the hills of Trinidad which would have facilitated the storage of water in these tanks for future use. These tanks would have been constructed and shipped and all that was required was the construction of the required base with the tank being built on the base within 10 days after arrival in Trinidad and cleared through Customs.
For this to work all that was required is the construction of the base close to a water source (rivers) with a small dam being built to allow for the water to be sent to the tanks. A small plant to chlorinate the water would be necessary and a line to feed the water to the main water supply would have to be done.
We need to recognise that after the water runs down the river basins into the sea it is permanently lost. Surely our experience at this time annually, should be motivating our Government. We agree that we need more roads but is a basic need like water not more important than roads?
We as a country need to be more mindful of the needs of our people and our Government must ensure that they introduce programmes to achieve these objectives. These needs should be prioritised and programmes introduced to ensure that the most important receives immediate attention.
This approach appears to be very foreign to the people running our country and they seem to be focusing on projects which could be deferred until we have satisfied the basic needs of our country.
Come on people, we need to be far less complacent and start standing up for what is the right thing to do. Let us continue our call for "water for all."
Ernest Lee
