SHAS­TRI BOODAN

GML Cor­re­spon­dent

New­ly ap­point­ed chair­man of the Wa­ter and Sew­er­age Au­thor­i­ty (WASA), Roshan Bab­wah, says tack­ling the coun­try’s wa­ter sup­ply chal­lenges—par­tic­u­lar­ly in un­der­served ar­eas—is the new board’s top pri­or­i­ty.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia at In­di­an Ar­rival Day cel­e­bra­tions in Cou­va yes­ter­day, Bab­wah, 55, a lawyer by pro­fes­sion, said WASA has been in­un­dat­ed with com­plaints from res­i­dents in South and Cen­tral Trinidad, as well as parts of the East–West Cor­ri­dor.

He said it is un­ac­cept­able that these com­mu­ni­ties re­ceive wa­ter on­ly once or twice a month.

Bab­wah said WASA will re-route sup­plies to en­sure rur­al com­mu­ni­ties re­ceive a more con­sis­tent and eq­ui­table ser­vice—bet­ter than what they’ve en­dured over the past decade.

Bab­wah al­so said WASA will roll out a com­pre­hen­sive op­er­a­tional plan with­in the next month to ad­dress long-stand­ing dis­tri­b­u­tion is­sues and im­prove over­all ser­vice de­liv­ery.