RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

With Christ­mas just two days away, Pe­nal res­i­dents left their chores un­done and aban­doned their shop­ping to stage fiery protests to high­light a lack of pipe-borne wa­ter.

The res­i­dents blocked the road along Oli­v­ere Dri­ve and Clarke Road, Pe­nal from 5 am on Fri­day be­fore the bus­tle of Christ­mas shop­ping be­gan.

Hold­ing up their plac­ards and emp­ty buck­ets, they called on the Wa­ter and Sew­er­age Au­thor­i­ty to send wa­ter to their area now.

Priscil­la Maraj, of Lach­hos Road, said she was un­able to clean her home as she is ac­cus­tomed to do­ing.

"We are suf­fer­ing for wa­ter,” she said. “None to bathe with or wash our sur­round­ings. We are beg­ging for wa­ter."

Maraj ex­plained that her fam­i­ly has been with­out pipe-borne wa­ter for more than a month.

"Pipes open night and day and noth­ing. We [are] us­ing rain­wa­ter to clean up and bathe but there is no wa­ter to wash clothes or flush the toi­lets," Maraj said.

Fiery protests at Lachoos Road and Clarke Road, Penal, on Friday 23 December 2022. [Image by RISHI RAGOONATH]

An­oth­er res­i­dent, Berna­dine Guer­ra, said she has not re­ceived wa­ter for two months.

"I have bought wa­ter twice since and the tank is now al­most emp­ty. Dur­ing the last flood, we didn't even get wa­ter to clean. It is very hard. It is Christ­mas and we want to clean our place and feel like hu­mans too. This lit­tle vil­lage here is the on­ly place that doesn't have wa­ter. Just over the hill they [are] get­ting wa­ter but we are not get­ting any," she said.

Ve­ra Noel al­so said she hasn't re­ceived wa­ter.

"We can­not bathe or cook. I have to buy food. We can't cook, clean, or flush. Use the toi­let, leave it and then flush it. That is not san­i­tary. We have lit­tle chil­dren to see about," Noel said.

Con­tact­ed for com­ment, WASA's Chief Ex­ec­u­tive Of­fi­cer Kelvin Ro­maine said WASA was able to restart one of its plants.

"We are ramp­ing up to max­i­mum pro­duc­tion on the south line," Ro­maine told Guardian Me­dia.

He not­ed that there was a pow­er is­sue at the Ca­roni Wa­ter Treat­ment Plant which neg­a­tive­ly af­fect­ed cus­tomers in the ex­treme ar­eas, in­clud­ing Pe­nal.

Ro­maine said the fo­cus was now be­ing placed on restor­ing wa­ter to the Pe­nal area. He ex­plained that the pow­er is­sues at the plant had re­sult­ed in a 50 per cent drop in pro­duc­tion but not­ed that WASA has been work­ing with T&TEC to have the mat­ter re­solved.