Ac­cess to wa­ter is a con­stant strug­gle for many res­i­dents in Moru­ga. A vis­it to the area pro­vides a stark pic­ture of this cri­sis. Makeshift rain­wa­ter col­lec­tion sys­tems are com­mon, and homes are lined with kegs, buck­ets, and bar­rels—an at­tempt to store enough wa­ter for dai­ly sur­vival.

Res­i­dents have adapt­ed, but their strug­gle is un­re­lent­ing.

In Cachipe Vil­lage, 62-year-old can­cer sur­vivor Yvette Pierre faces an up­hill bat­tle. She gets wa­ter just twice a month and re­lies on rain­wa­ter col­lect­ed through her gut­ters. While this suf­fices in the rainy sea­son, the dry months bring anx­i­ety.

“I am an ill pa­tient and I do not have a pump right now. You see I have my tanks con­nect­ed, so I have to tote wa­ter in a buck­et. But my fin­gers have a prob­lem, they can­not bend. It is dif­fi­cult to car­ry wa­ter to the kitchen, the bath­room, and for bathing,” Pierre said.

She be­lieves WASA could pro­vide a more fre­quent sup­ply, even if just three to four days a week, which would sig­nif­i­cant­ly ease the bur­den on the com­mu­ni­ty’s el­der­ly pop­u­la­tion.

Bev­er­ly Bris­tol, of Basse Terre, said she no­ticed an un­usu­al sur­plus of tap wa­ter when Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley vis­it­ed Moru­ga last Fri­day. Nor­mal­ly, she and her neigh­bours get wa­ter every two weeks for three days at most. By the time tanks are filled and house­hold chores com­plet­ed, the sup­ply runs out.

“If we could get wa­ter like that for the last two weeks, we can get wa­ter all the time,” she said.

Bris­tol, who sup­ple­ments her wa­ter sup­ply from a near­by riv­er, be­lieves WASA can fix the prob­lem but lacks the will.

“I am not blam­ing the Gov­ern­ment be­cause Row­ley can­not sit down and open the pipes at the junc­tion all the time. They are sup­posed to do their work,” she said.

At Saun­ders Road, St Mary, Robert Fi­garo said he has lived with wa­ter short­ages for decades. His com­mu­ni­ty re­ceives wa­ter once a week, some­times last­ing two days. Res­i­dents have adapt­ed by in­stalling tanks, but un­re­li­able pres­sure of­ten leaves those on high­er ground with­out ac­cess.

“For a long, long time, there were times we did not get wa­ter at all,” Fi­garo said.

When the taps run dry, they fetch wa­ter from a pipe at a de­ceased neigh­bour’s home.

“You have to fill and car­ry wa­ter be­cause you nev­er know when the sup­ply will stop,” he said.

There are sim­i­lar strug­gles in neigh­bour­ing com­mu­ni­ties, in­clud­ing Bois Jean Jean, Gran Chemin and Rock Riv­er.

Guardian Me­dia con­tact­ed WASA for com­ment on the sit­u­a­tion and is await­ing a re­sponse.

Princes Town MP Bar­ry Padarath re­cent­ly claimed that 80 per cent of Moru­ga/Table­land con­stituents get wa­ter on­ly once a week, and in some com­mu­ni­ties the sit­u­a­tion is even worse.

Padarath was re­spond­ing to Min­is­ter of Works and Trans­port Ro­han Sinanan, who, at the open­ing of the Gran Chemin Fish­ing Cen­tre, sug­gest­ed that progress in their area would de­pend on their votes in the up­com­ing gen­er­al elec­tions.