The Wa­ter and Sew­er­age Au­thor­i­ty (WASA) will in­tro­duce wa­ter-use re­stric­tions from Mon­day as El Niño con­di­tions are ex­pect­ed to re­duce rain­fall and af­fect the re­plen­ish­ment of the coun­try’s wa­ter sources ahead of the 2027 dry sea­son.

The re­stric­tions take ef­fect at 12.01 am on No­vem­ber 16 and pro­hib­it cus­tomers from us­ing WASA-sup­plied wa­ter through hosepipes or sim­i­lar equip­ment, in­clud­ing sprin­klers and pres­sure wash­ers, to wa­ter pri­vate gar­dens or wash pri­vate mo­tor ve­hi­cles.

WASA said the mea­sures were be­ing in­tro­duced ear­ly un­der its AquaFor­ward – A Na­tion­al Wa­ter Re­silience Ini­tia­tive, launched in Au­gust to strength­en the coun­try’s wa­ter sup­ply.

The au­thor­i­ty said the Trinidad and To­ba­go Me­te­o­ro­log­i­cal Ser­vice had con­firmed that El Niño con­di­tions were es­tab­lished in the trop­i­cal Pa­cif­ic, with dri­er con­di­tions ex­pect­ed to con­tin­ue in­to the 2027 dry sea­son.

El Niño is as­so­ci­at­ed with re­duced rain­fall in the lat­ter part of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s wet sea­son, which nor­mal­ly re­plen­ish­es the coun­try’s raw wa­ter sources.

WASA said it was act­ing to con­serve avail­able sup­plies and pro­tect wa­ter for es­sen­tial needs, in­clud­ing drink­ing, cook­ing, san­i­ta­tion and hy­giene, as well as schools and health fa­cil­i­ties.

Un­der Sec­tion 49(1) of the Wa­ter and Sew­er­age Act, Chap­ter 54:40, any­one who breach­es the re­stric­tions is li­able to a fine up­on sum­ma­ry con­vic­tion.

The au­thor­i­ty said au­tho­rised of­fi­cers could en­ter premis­es sup­plied with wa­ter, up­on pro­duc­ing au­then­ti­cat­ed doc­u­ments, to check for waste or mis­use. In­creased pa­trols will al­so be con­duct­ed to mon­i­tor com­pli­ance.

WASA is urg­ing cus­tomers to re­pair house­hold leaks prompt­ly, in­stall low-flow de­vices on taps and show­ers, and re­port leaks on its net­work.