Rad­hi­ca Sookraj

Tem­pers flared at the Pe­nal/Debe Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion yes­ter­day as of­fi­cials of the Wa­ter and Sewage Au­thor­i­ty ad­vised res­i­dents to brace for more wa­ter woes in 2010. The warn­ing came from South re­gion­al man­ag­er of WASA Collin Nym as he ad­dressed coun­cil­lors, res­i­dents and staff dur­ing a wa­ter-cri­sis meet­ing at the cor­po­ra­tion. Nym said the out­look was bleak for 2010, be­cause low­er rain­fall had ex­ac­er­bat­ed pro­duc­tion con­straints at the Ca­roni wa­ter treat­ment plant and the de­sali­na­tion plant in Point Lisas. He said most of the wa­ter dis­trib­uted in south Trinidad came from the Ca­roni plant. "Pro­duc­tion at this fa­cil­i­ty has been re­duced as the sea­son did not pro­vide what we ex­pect­ed," he said.

RIGHT: South Re­gion­al Man­ag­er Collin Nym ad­dress­es res­i­dents.

"We have a large reser­voir and we did not cap­ture as much rain­fall as we an­tic­i­pat­ed. Be­tween Jan­u­ary to June 2009, we faced a lot of prob­lems. "The Me­te­o­ro­log­i­cal Of­fice said 2010 would be much dri­er than nor­mal and this means that we have a bleak fu­ture ahead. "The Me­te­o­ro­log­i­cal Of­fice pre­dict­ed that we would have 80 to 90 mm of rain­fall for Jan­u­ary and we are al­ready halfway through the month and we on­ly saw 5 mm." Nym ex­plained that WASA's sup­ply sched­ules have been re­vised. "As we speak, se­nior of­fi­cials are hold­ing an emer­gency meet­ing with the Met Of­fice to get more ac­cu­rate pre­dic­tions," he said. "So the out­look is bleak but we are com­mit­ted to read­just­ing our sched­ules so that we can have a more eq­ui­table dis­tri­b­u­tion."

He said Ca­roni plant had re­duced its pro­duc­tion ca­pac­i­ty from 70 mil­lion gal­lons per day to 60 mil­lion, cre­at­ing a 10-mil­lion short­fall for dis­tri­b­u­tion. Dur­ing his ad­dress, an­gry res­i­dents in­ter­rupt­ed, say­ing WASA's dis­tri­b­u­tion was plagued with dis­crim­i­na­tion, nepo­tism and cor­rup­tion. Res­i­dents com­plained that even dur­ing the rainy sea­son, they did not have wa­ter. Ar­eas such as Welling­ton Road, Ra­mai Trace, Con­go Hill, Debe Trace, Gand­hi Vil­lage, and en­vi­rons did not have a wa­ter sup­ply for more than a week, res­i­dents said. In­di­ra Kat­wa­roo said de­spite the lack of wa­ter, peo­ple were still re­ceiv­ing hefty bills.

"Peo­ple have to pay $400 for tank of wa­ter," she said. An­oth­er res­i­dent Ram­roop Ba­hal said he had surgery re­cent­ly and has been forced to wipe his body with a cloth be­cause there was no wa­ter. Oth­er res­i­dents com­plained of cor­rup­tion with the turn cocks and con­trac­tors who were charg­ing as much as $400 for a tank of wa­ter. Oropouche MP Roodal Mooni­lal called on WASA to ex­plain why wa­ter was be­ing avail­able for recre­ation­al pur­pos­es when peo­ple did not have a drop to drink or bathe.