Pt Lisas desal plant up and running

The ten-day shutdown of the desalination plant at Pt Lisas will end today and WASA customers are expected to get a regular supply of water, starting this morning. In a statement yesterday, WASA’s head of corporate communications Ellen Lewis said work was proceeding as scheduled.

“Customers in central and south Trinidad should expect a normalisation in supply in accordance with their established schedules over a 24-hour period,” Lewis said. The plant was shut down for maintenance work on January 15. Lewis thanked customers for playing their part in minimising the effects of reduced supplies from the desalination plant by reducing consumption and by being more efficient in their water-use habits.

The plant provides 30 million gallons of desalinated water to WASA which is used to supply the Pt Lisas Industrial Estate and to augment areas in Central and South Trinidad. The shutdown was expected to cost WASA approximately $4 million. To facilitate the shutdown, WASA redistributed the supply from the Caroni and Navet Water Treatment Plants to the affected areas.

WASA also increased its water delivery fleet to 83 trucks and the introduction of temporary water supply schedules so that customers will not suffer. Weeks before the upgrades began, hardware stores around the country ran out of plastic water tanks as consumers tried to stock up on water. There were also reports that discoloured water was flowing from taps in Pleasantville, Ste Madeleine and Golconda.