Climatologist at the T&T Meteorological Service Willis Mills says T&T can expect a near normal dry season, although the current rainy season has been less wet than usual. Mills said citizens could expect the usual amount of rainfall for the period of January to May which constituted approximately 17 per cent of the country's annual rainfall.
He said the prospects for the five months of the dry season from January to May were between 300 and 350 mm of rainfall in Piarco. Mills said although the Met Office used rainfall at Picaro as its benchmark, the measurements would vary throughout the country. Comparing November 2012 rainfall with previous years, Mills said 76 per cent of what was expected throughout the country was recorded with 79 per cent in Piarco.
Throughout the country there was a 25 to 33 per cent deficit in rainfall for the period June to November, he added. Those figures, he said, were based on years of rainfall averages gathered at Navet Dam, Caroni-Arena Dam, Hollis Reservoir, Hillsborough Reservoir and Met Office sites in Crown Point, Tobago and Piarco.
Ellen Lewis, head of corporate communications at the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA), said water production was estimated at 234 million gallons a day. She said during the dry season there was usually a decrease in daily production by 40 million gallons.
Lewis also said next year, from January 14 to 23, a ten-day shutdown of the desalination plant in Pt Lisas to facilitate maintenance work would result in a further decrease of 30 million gallons. She said WASA's water supply programme for 2013 would take into consideration the effects of the dry season and would aim to ensure water supply security.