Sascha Wil­son

Se­nior Re­porter

sascha.wil­son@guardian.co.tt

While some ar­eas ex­pe­ri­enced flood­ing yes­ter­day, many res­i­dents in Table­land were hap­py for the show­ers. For those res­i­dents, the rain was a source of much need­ed wa­ter in their emp­ty or al­most emp­ty tanks and con­tain­ers.

Res­i­dents of Lo­cal Road, Mc Sween Street and sur­round­ing ar­eas com­plained that their taps have been dry for weeks and months.

Pen­sion­er Gwen­dolyn John, 69, of Mc Sween Road, Sec­ond Brand Road, said they have had no wa­ter for over a month.

“We don’t have any wa­ter here. Peo­ple pass­ing with those small tanks on top their van and go­ing on the out­side to get wa­ter. It not nice,” said John.

She said her son would some­times bring con­tain­ers of wa­ter for her. They al­so de­pend on the rain.

Hap­py for yes­ter­day’s show­ers, she said, “The rain falling and I have a piece of gut­ter­ing on my tank, and as soon as the rain fall, I does get a lit­tle bit. I have five tanks. Just now, I come from out­side, and the one (tank) with the spout full. Thank God I still have some wa­ter.”

She said their wa­ter is­sues start­ed ear­li­er this year, but WASA does not sup­ply her with truck­borne wa­ter.

“WASA have to bring wa­ter for we. If we don’t get wa­ter by the pipe, let them send it by the trucks,” she said.

An­oth­er res­i­dent, Al­li­son Pe­ter, a moth­er of five, of Lo­cal Road, said they have been ex­pe­ri­enc­ing an ir­reg­u­lar pipeborne sup­ply for about three years.

“But in­side here doesn’t re­al­ly have wa­ter. If we get wa­ter once for the month, that’s plen­ty.”

Show­ing sev­er­al con­tain­ers, bar­rels and half-bar­rels, she said they have re­ceived no pipeborne wa­ter for over three months. As a re­sult, she said her hus­band has no choice but to dri­ve through the Table­land area search­ing for wa­ter to fill their con­tain­ers.

Pe­ter, a nurs­ing as­sis­tant, said, “To full a bar­rel, we does take about two trips. We does have to be up and down be­cause we have to get wa­ter.”

She ex­plained that when they col­lect rain wa­ter, she would use that to wash clothes.

De­spite their wa­ter woes, she said they would still get their WASA bill in the mail for the full amount.

“I think that is ridicu­lous. They should ad­just that be­cause we are not get­ting wa­ter in­side here, but yet they send­ing a bill,” she lament­ed.

Call­ing on WASA to “do bet­ter,” Pe­ter said, “In­stead of send­ing bill, send wa­ter in the pipe. We need wa­ter. The same way Princes Town and all those big places could get wa­ter every day, we need wa­ter. If you want to just send it two, three days for the month, we will be hap­py.”

Guardian Me­dia al­so caught up with Teek­er­am Sieu­dath, a res­i­dent of Lo­cal Road, while he was on his way to a friend’s home to fill a bar­rel.

“Some­times for weeks we do not get wa­ter, most of the time we get wa­ter is from the rain,” he said.

Sieu­dath be­lieves their wa­ter prob­lem could be re­solved if WASA in­creas­es the wa­ter pres­sure.

“When they used to open the pres­sure all, every­body used to get wa­ter in­side Table­land. Some­times the wa­ter used to stay three days or four days,” he said.

He said his heart goes out to the res­i­dents who are suf­fer­ing for wa­ter.

“Is re­al pres­sure. Right now, plen­ty of them fulling wa­ter in Table­land Lo­cal Road, First Branch and Sec­ond Branch. About 400, 500 peo­ple liv­ing in­side there.”

He said WASA al­so needs to put bet­ter in­fra­struc­ture to in­crease the wa­ter vol­ume to the com­mu­ni­ties. Up to press time, there was no re­sponse from WASA.