Akash Sama­roo

Lead Ed­i­tor-Pol­i­tics

akash.sama­roo@cnc3.co.tt

The Gov­ern­ment is set to in­vest tens of mil­lions of dol­lars in a mix of short-, medi­um-, and long-term projects aimed at sta­bil­is­ing and ex­pand­ing wa­ter pro­duc­tion across Trinidad and To­ba­go. These ini­tia­tives in­clude a $7.5 mil­lion tank farm pro­gramme, a $20 mil­lion up­grade to a ma­jor treat­ment plant, and the con­struc­tion of new de­sali­na­tion fa­cil­i­ties.

Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Bar­ry Padarath made the an­nounce­ment dur­ing a post-Cab­i­net news brief­ing, say­ing the mea­sures are part of a broad­er strat­e­gy to move the coun­try to­ward a more re­li­able wa­ter sup­ply, with the ul­ti­mate goal of “en­sur­ing that per­sons re­ceive a 24-7 sup­ply.”

Out­lin­ing the plan, Padarath said Cab­i­net has al­ready ap­proved the ex­pan­sion of a pi­lot tank farm project, which is be­ing im­ple­ment­ed as an im­me­di­ate re­sponse to wors­en­ing dry sea­son con­di­tions.

“For the con­struc­tion of these tank farms and op­er­a­tional costs, we are look­ing at $7.5 mil­lion in terms of in­vest­ment,” he said.

The pro­gramme, which be­gan in Siparia, has al­ready shown re­sults, with wa­ter truck ca­pac­i­ty in­creas­ing from four to 18 wag­ons. Padarath said the ex­pan­sion will tar­get un­der­served ar­eas, in­clud­ing Moru­ga/Table­land, Ma­yaro, and Cu­mu­to/Man­zanil­la.

“There are al­so fu­ture plans for ad­di­tion­al tank farms in south­east­ern con­stituen­cies, in­clud­ing Na­pari­ma and San­gre Grande,” he added.

“These tank farms are lo­cat­ed in com­mu­ni­ties that are un­der­served and of­ten go weeks, some­times months, with­out a tra­di­tion­al pipe-borne sup­ply,” Padarath ex­plained.

The min­is­ter stressed that these mea­sures are nec­es­sary giv­en the coun­try’s age­ing in­fra­struc­ture and re­cur­ring dry sea­son pres­sures.

“Those chal­lenges are on an an­nu­al ba­sis be­cause of the harsh con­di­tions of the dry sea­son,” he said, not­ing that some sys­tems are “50-60 years old, if not old­er in some in­stances.”

Be­yond short-term re­lief, Padarath said, the Gov­ern­ment is al­so work­ing to boost pro­duc­tion ca­pac­i­ty through in­fra­struc­ture up­grades. Cab­i­net has ap­proved a $20 mil­lion up­grade to the Freeport Wa­ter Treat­ment Plant, which is ex­pect­ed to im­prove sup­ply to mul­ti­ple cen­tral com­mu­ni­ties, in­clud­ing Cou­va, Ch­agua­nas, and Clax­ton Bay.

In the East-West cor­ri­dor, the long-de­layed Bon Air Waste­water Treat­ment Plant has al­so been pri­ori­tised. The project is ex­pect­ed to “bring a greater de­gree of re­lief to cit­i­zens” once com­plet­ed.

The Min­is­ter con­firmed that ma­jor wa­ter in­fra­struc­ture projects are al­so planned for To­ba­go and South Trinidad, in­clud­ing the long-await­ed Hills­bor­ough Dam and three new de­sali­na­tion plants.

One de­sali­na­tion fa­cil­i­ty is ear­marked for Char­lot­teville, To­ba­go, where Padarath said he is ex­pect­ed to meet with the Chief Sec­re­tary and the Sec­re­tary for Pub­lic Util­i­ties in the com­ing days. The oth­er two plants will tar­get long-stand­ing sup­ply chal­lenges in South Trinidad, par­tic­u­lar­ly in ar­eas re­liant on the Navet Dam.

“One plant is ear­marked for Moru­ga/Table­land, which will sig­nif­i­cant­ly re­duce pres­sure on the Navet Dam. Cur­rent­ly, there is over-re­liance on the dam, and this project will free up wa­ter in South Trinidad,” he ex­plained.

He added that ar­eas in­clud­ing Na­pari­ma, Princes Town, Moru­ga/Table­land, San Fer­nan­do East, and sur­round­ing com­mu­ni­ties will ben­e­fit.

“This will sup­ple­ment the ex­ist­ing sup­ply and al­le­vi­ate many of the prob­lems in the south­ern part of the is­land, pro­vid­ing long-term re­lief in terms of a 24/7 sup­ply—or at least 24-hour sup­ply every four days,” Padarath said.

Ex­pres­sions of in­ter­est for the projects are ex­pect­ed to be is­sued at the start of April.

The min­is­ter al­so high­light­ed ben­e­fits for Ma­yaro.

“With re­spect to Ma­yaro—and I’m sure the mem­ber for Ma­yaro will be pleased—sev­er­al projects are al­ready un­der­way in his con­stituen­cy. It is ex­pect­ed that 1,200 house­holds will ben­e­fit from the de­sali­na­tion plant there, im­pact­ing over 20,000 to 25,000 peo­ple,” he said.