YOU CAN’T CUT-OFF THE SUPPLY

The way Minister of Public Utilities Rennie Dumas tells it, WASA’s management of its available water supply during this harsh dry season has never been better.

While people in places such as Cocorite were demonstrating for water, Dumas stressed that in other areas of the country people were admitting that it was the first time that they had water throughout a dry season. Dumas commended the general public for their restraint in using water in this rainless season. “I think people generally reduced their demand,” he said. But he also gave credit to WASA which  lost one third of its capacity as a result of the severe dryness of the season. He explained that two-thirds of its surface “run off” — that is water extracted directly from rivers and streams — was depleted. And the Authority was forced to “run down” its reservoirs and wells to make up this shortfall. It also used rationing very early in the season. Because of the proper management, it was currently in the comfortable position of having three months supply of water.

Dumas said that WASA was on the ball pretty early. Four and a half months ago the Authority issued a warning that it expected a very torrid dry season. And for the first time it engaged the services of 100 water trucks to distribute water. Furthermore it tried to guarantee a minimum of eight hours of water out of every 36 hours to the communities most affected by the shortage. Dumas noted that even when one analysed some of the water protests, one would understand that they were in part fuelled by the very development which WASA had brought to certain communities. For example in Cocorite, he said, which never had pipeborne water, WASA had installed lines last year and the people were demonstrating because they wanted the booster stations installed so they could get pipe borne water, as opposed to using the community tanks filled by water trucks. Unlike previous Utilities ministers who were known for making statements such as “water for all by 2000,” Dumas shied away from saying when there would be sufficent water for the people. In fact, he made it clear that he was not going to do like his predecessor Ganga Singh and to say there would be “water for all in 2005.”  “I would want to wait before giving any declaration,” he said, adding that the whole question of planning for the water system would be taken before the Energy Sub-Committee.

He said that a team within the Ministry was preparing a report for submission to this committee. He explained that there was still a deficiency in terms of the amount of water WASA was able to capture particularly in the Southern extremities (South-East and South-West) of Trinidad, in some places in Central Trinidad and in the whole western part of Tobago. WASA also had difficulty matching some of the water availability with the planned industrial development. This mismatch stemmed from the conscious effort of the government to try and put industrial development in some of the depressed areas, which lacked the infrastructure for industry. Dumas said while the distribution system had been improved it was hampered by the inability to switch from system to system. “The consumer does not want to know why water is locked off. (What the consumers wants is that) if there is a problem at Navet Dam you (WASA) should be able to switch to the Caroni Arena so that you (the consumer) still get water,” he stated. That capacity does not currently exist in WASA, he noted. He added that because the pipes were very old, there was also a high incidence of leaks. “And as you develop the water sources and develop the distribution system and try to push it through these old lines, you are increasing the pressure, virtually ensuring that those old lines fail,” he said.

Dumas conceded that the controversial Desalination Plant had increased the available supply of water. But he stressed that the contention over the Desal Plant lay in the financial arrangements which accompanied it. While it has brought no new revenue, it has brought new costs, he stated. And this was because the arrangement required the transferring of the water that WASA was selling at a high price to the industrial users at the Point Lisas Industrial Estate, to low paying households. This has given WASA less money for the water it produces. Furthermore WASA was now paying more for the water that is produced by the Desal Plant (for the industrial estate). While there is nothing inherently wrong with desalinated water the financial arrangement which came with the desal plant have exacerbated WASA’s financial situation, Dumas said. The Public Utilities Minister summed up WASA’s fiscal in one word: “Bad.” WASA’s expenditure is about $850 million annually, while its revenue is $450 million annually, leaving a deficit of $400 million. There is also an accumulated debt from previous years of $5.8 billion.

But Dumas has a theory about this problem. “We set a price. When we say everyone must have water, as we should, we say that WASA must produce a certain amount of water. But we are also saying that WASA cannot charge more than X for this water. So we are setting an expenditure framework and an income framework which do not match,” he said. “And,” he added, “if we do that as a matter of public policy, then the executive management of WASA cannot be blamed for the deficiencies or the shortfall.” Noting that people want to “kill” Errol Grimes, Dumas stated that the government and people must find a mechanism for closing this financial gap. “If you consciously leave the gap there ... the government has to find a way to finance the gap otherwise the whole water distribution system is going to fall,” he noted. Dumas compared the status of WASA with other public utilities which have been granted rate increases. “We consciously as a population agreed to change the price for talking on the phone, we consciously agreed to change the price of electricity, we even changed the price of TTPost. Nothing happened with those managers and systems. The changes allowed them to become viable.”

So is a rate revision being considered? “It is a clear possibility. It is a clear issue that we have to face,” Dumas replied. He added that if in the interest of the poorer people government agreed to pay for water, the taxpayers had to recognise that there was a price  for this — that WASA would therefore have a deficit which would have to be financed by the State. On the Grimes salary issue, Dumas emphasised that salaries to WASA’s managers were a very small part of WASA’s overall cost — perhaps less than 1 per cent. Dumas has one request though — for people to pay their rates. He appealed especially to the commercial consumers to pay their rates. They owe $40 million. Of course, he pointed out that the “standpipe people” owe $73 million. They comprise 66,000 people who live within a certain radius of a standpipe and who are therefore asked to pay about $30 dollars a quarter. But Dumas conceded that this debt was not recoverable. “They are not bothering with you because you can’t cut off (the supply from) the standpipe,” he stated.