Rad­hi­ca Sookraj

Faced with hefty wa­ter bills de­spite ob­tain­ing their on­ly wa­ter sup­ply from rivers and ponds, scores of Moru­ga res­i­dents staged a fiery protest at Samuel Coop­er Trace, yes­ter­day.

In a cru­cial elec­tion year, they de­mand­ed an im­me­di­ate meet­ing with their MP for Table­land/Moru­ga, Clifton De Coteau, who they charged had been ig­nor­ing their com­plaints for the past five months.

De Coteau has con­sent­ed to meet with the group to­day. The protest, which start­ed around 6 am at Samuel Coop­er Trace, had al­so spread to the near­by vil­lages of Fifth Com­pa­ny and St Mary's by mid­day.

Chil­dren who did not go to school dragged pieces of bam­boo, logs and oth­er de­bris to the cen­tre of the road, which were set ablaze. Po­lice urged the res­i­dents to stop the protest say­ing the smoke was bad for the chil­dren.

Spokesper­son Tanasha Coop­er said the chil­dren were al­ready in dan­ger be­cause they had no clean wa­ter to drink or bathe with.

"The riv­er poi­soned now be­cause some­body throw a dead dog in the wa­ter. We suf­fer­ing and we can't take this no more. We sur­viv­ing on co­conut wa­ter and frost ice," she shout­ed. Coop­er said for the past five months, WASA had not pro­vid­ed a wa­ter sup­ply. Some of the res­i­dents have a pipeborne con­nec­tion but most de­pend on a near­by stand­pipe which they said was locked off by WASA last year.

Stand­ing next to the aban­doned stand­pipe, Coop­er said WASA was try­ing to force her moth­er Yvonne Coop­er to pay a $5,440 bill, even though she had not re­ceived a wa­ter sup­ply since De­cem­ber.

"We beg­ging for a con­nec­tion from WASA but they telling us we have to pay this bill even though we nev­er get wa­ter. It's un­fair," Coop­er said, as her neigh­bours shout­ed: "WASA wicked!"

Yvonne, 69, who has an am­pu­tat­ed leg said she was us­ing part of her pen­sion to clear the bill be­cause she des­per­ate­ly need­ed a pipeborne con­nec­tion.

Ian Sylver­ton said his three-year-old son Keon could not go to school be­cause of the wa­ter cri­sis.

"I can­not bathe him with riv­er wa­ter be­cause it scratch­ing his skin. The wa­ter get like drain wa­ter since they throw a dead dog in there. We want the Gov­ern­ment to come here and help us be­cause we suf­fer­ing for too long," Sylver­ton added.

Natasha Dy­er who works at an ice-cream par­lour in San Fer­nan­do said even though the riv­er was more than a mile away, res­i­dents had to take turns to wash in the riv­er bank.

"We want a bet­ter life. We want a prop­er com­mu­ni­ty cen­tre for our chil­dren. We want run­ning wa­ter, jobs and op­por­tu­ni­ties like every­body else. We want bet­ter hous­es," Dy­er said.

The res­i­dents vowed to con­tin­ue their protests un­til they got re­lief.

MP, WASA re­spond

Con­tact­ed yes­ter­day, De Coteau said he was sym­pa­thet­ic to the plight of the res­i­dents.

"The peo­ple have reached a point of frus­tra­tion. No wa­ter, ab­solute­ly none," De Coteau said. He added that he planned to meet with the res­i­dents at 9 am to­day to dis­cuss their con­cerns.

WASA's cor­po­rate com­mu­ni­ca­tions of­fi­cer Daniel Plen­ty said yes­ter­day that a team was sent to the area. He said the vil­lage stand­pipe was not dis­con­nect­ed by WASA but had been van­dalised. He said arrange­ments were be­ing made to fix the stand­pipe so res­i­dents could ob­tain wa­ter.

He al­so said ten house­holds which did not have a con­nec­tion could vis­it WASA's cus­tomer care de­part­ment to ap­ply for one. He said WASA would al­so in­ves­ti­gate the pen­sion­er's con­cerns and find a so­lu­tion.