Senior Political Reporter
The Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) has been increasing water production at the Caroni Arena Dam by 65 million gallons over the last 24 to 48 hours to meet the shortfalls in water supply and its impact on communities in central and south Trinidad.
Public Utilities Minister Marvin Gonzales announced this yesterday in Parliament. He said it was part of a multi-pronged approach to increase water supply to areas in south and central Trinidad and communities on the extremities of WASA’s distribution system, following a consistent decline in reservoir levels due to the dry conditions.
He was responding to Princes Town MP Barry Padarath’s questions about assistance for areas in south and central Trinidad which have been without a pipe-borne supply for more than six weeks in some instances.
Gonzales said there is evidence of a harsh dry season starting earlier than in previous years, with high evaporation rates, minimal rainfall in January and February and a consistent decline in river levels in WASA’s surface water facilities.
“Because of declining reservoirs in Hollis, Caroni Arena, Navet and Hillsborough, WASA currently is experiencing a decline of 18 million gallons of water less than compared to previous years, especially 2023,” he said.
He said the dry season is also affecting Desalcott’s ability to provide its contracted 40 million gallons of water daily.
“As a result of that, I acknowledge there are communities, especially on the extremities of WASA’s distribution system, that are experiencing challenges in their water supply and as a result of that, WASA’s executives have taken a decision to increase water production at the Caroni Arena Dam by 65 millions of water over the last 24 to 48 hours to meet the shortfalls and impact on communities in Central and South Trinidad,” he said.
Gonzales said water scheduling will redistribute water from areas that have a consistent supply to communities that are unserved and underserved, especially in the extremities of WASA’s distribution system.
He added that the decision taken to increase production will assist parts of Penal, Siparia, Debe, and Oropouche and they will have an improvement in water supply.
“And I’ve already given WASA instructions to ramp up water trucking activities to target those communities also,” Gonzales said.
“Over the next two months as well, a number of private water truck operators will be brought into WASA’s operation to assist those communities which are unserved and underserved, plus a number of production wells have been drilled and we expect those wells to come into production in the next two months – before end of the dry season.”
Gonzales said: “We’ve started engagement with Desalcott and they’ve indicated that as soon as they are in a position to meet their contracted volume of 40 million gallons of water per day, they’ll increase production beyond that to provide to those communities in central and south Trinidad.
“We’ve also engaged the Seven Seas Desalination Company in the Point Fortin area and they’ve indicated they’re willing to increase their production by 300,000 gallons of water per day and we expect that to happen over the next 48 hours to treat with the challenges we face at this point.”