Complaints of no water in areas in the country flow in as officials of the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) work on returning service to customers in the North East after a blown transformer at the North Oropouche Water Treatment Plant halted service.
A snake crawled onto the transformer and made contact with two leads that grounded off, resulting in an electrical fire which burned the transformer wiring at the plant on Saturday night.
It left thousands of customers between Sangre Grande and Five Rivers without a water supply.
A release from WASA assured the public that while the pipe borne water supply would be temporarily unavailable, they have "ramped" up its water trucking capacity to service North East Trinidad from six to 30 trucks.
WASA officials, along with workers from the T&T Electrical Commission (T&TEC), said the completion of repair work to the transformer at the North Oropouche Water Treatment Plant is on schedule for today.
The authority's communications manager, Daniel Plenty, assured the return of service today.
Some of the affected areas include Sangre Grande, Guaico, Manzanilla, and Malabar Phases 1, 3 and 4.
Anthony Garcia, councillor for the Malabar area, said residents in his area are managing with the low water supply. He said most people in the area have water tanks.
"I have visited many of the houses in my area and most of the people there have storage tanks. They said they did not do a great deal of washing and they are trying to conserve water," Garcia said.
However, T&T Guardian spoke to people who thought they were experiencing the effects of the blown transformer. It was later revealed that though they did not live in the affected areas, they were not receiving an adequate water supply.
Camille Clarke, who lives in Cleaver Heights, said her family has not had any water since Saturday last. However, T&T Guardian learned that Cleaver Heights does not receive water from the North Oropouche Water Treatment Plant.
"The last time we got water was last Saturday. We got, but it wasn't much. We haven't even gotten any truck borne water. My aunt had to bring buckets of water for me because we do not have tanks," Clarke said.
Clarke said she has been messaging WASA to get the water turned back on, but it would only come for a short period of time. She said she was at least grateful for the warning she got from WASA that there would be a water disruption.
However, when T&T Guardian spoke to a communication official at WASA, it was revealed that the Cleaver Heights area was not among the areas that were affected by the blown transformer.
Franz Lamkin, councillor for the Morvant area, said that representatives from his area have also been experiencing problems with the water supply– particularly those from the Laventille Extension Road and the Mon Repos Road.
"We may be out of the North Eastern region but I have gotten five calls so far from people in my area who do not have water. I personally checked different people and they also did not have water. I have been contacting the corporation (San Juan/ Laventille Regional Corporation) to get a truck borne water supply to people in the area," Lamkin said.
When asked about these two areas–Cleaver Heights and Morvant, another WASA communications official said he will look into the issues in those areas.