The Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) plans to spend approximately $50 million on three wastewater management projects in southwest Tobago. The announcement was made by Orville London, Chief Secretary of the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) during the assembly's weekly post, executive council media briefing on Wednesday. London said the wastewater management for southwest Tobago had been in the pipeline for the past 20 years and in 2009 it was estimated that the cost of the entire project would have been $824 million.
He said sourcing that kind of money was going to be a problem and therefore the project would be done in phases. The chief secretary met with the WASA management headed by chief executive officer, Ganga Singh earlier this week when a short-term programme was agreed on. London said the project would be undertaken in phases with the establishment of three ponds to serve an estimated 6,000 households and businesses.
He said ponds would be built at Bon Accord and Golden Grove at an estimated cost of $12.5 million each and a third at Buccoo, estimated to cost $25 million. He said the three ponds were estimated to take 18 months to complete. The Chief Secretary said tenders for the project would be invited in three months and within a two-year period relief would be brought to the area.