A little more than a month after residents of Kernahan Trace, Cunupia, blocked roads in protest over a lack of water in the area, WASA opened a new well—the Las Lomas #12 Well—in the area, providing the residents with a steady supply of water after close to seven years of mostly dried taps.
The well, according to the head of Water Projects at WASA, is capable of producing as much as 350,000 gallons of water per day and will serve approximately 6,600 people with more water in the areas of Las Lomas, Chin Chin, and Kernahan Road.
“For years, our taps were dry, and now, thanks to this project, there is water galore. It’s bursting pipe. My husband had to change all the pipes at home. That’s all I have to say,” an elderly female resident said.
“The lack of access to a clean and reliable source of water has been a challenge for us, affecting every aspect of our daily life, but thanks to your tireless efforts, we now have a functioning water system. I would like to say thank you to everyone in WASA. We want the water to continue bursting our pipes,” another resident said.
Public Utilities Minister Marvin Gonzales, who attended the commissioning of the new well, was greeted with applause by residents. “It was very emotional because the situation in Kernahan was really an unfortunate situation that was allowed to remain there for years without being brought to the leadership of the organisation as well as the Public Utilities Ministry, and that’s the reason why I commissioned and asked for an investigation to be done to investigate the circumstances under which people were not getting water in the Kernahan area.”
He said as part of that investigation, residents were interviewed to get a true picture of what transpired over the years.
“We have done similar types of interventions all over—in Tobago and in central Trinidad …”
According to Gonzales, the percentage of people who are getting access to water 24 hours a day, seven days a week, across the country has increased significantly over the last three years.
He claimed that in 2021, the percentage of people with 24/7 access was 32 per cent and that figure is now close to 61 per cent.
“We commissioned nine wells. We did water treatment plants. We constructed nearly 20 booster stations all across Trinidad and Tobago. We laid down pipelines in areas that never had pipeline water, like in the Tabaquite area, and we did similar things in Matura. You are now seeing an incremental rise in the number of persons who have regular access to water.
Gonzales also spoke about an illegal water-trucking scheme in Morne Diablo. According to Gonzales, for more than 20 years, approximately 5,000 residents in the village were forced to purchase truck-borne water for an average of $1,000 a month.
He said the scheme, which was reported on by Guardian Media, was discovered six weeks ago. He questioned how the illegal scheme was allowed to operate for so long before action was taken. “It was a very strange arrangement where five or six residents were able to tap into the wells to provide the people of Morne Diablo with water, and the five residents were able to tap into the wells, extract the water, construct large storage reservoirs on their property, and invest in water trucks. “Taking all of the water from the wells and investing millions of dollars in water trucks and selling it to the people higher up in Morne Diablo. That could not have happened without the support of people in WASA and perhaps representatives who are responsible for ensuring the well-being of these people,” he added.
“This will be a matter for the police and other law enforcement agencies ... The fact that it was allowed to foster for 20 or 30 years tells me that something is wrong with the moral conscience of this country because it happened under the nose of representatives of the Parliament, members of the council, as well as regional managers in the Water and Sewerage Authority,” he lamented.
According to Gonzales, he has reports of a lot more similar cases. He said he expects that following the outcome of internal and TTPS investigations, appropriate action will be taken.