Hinds: No water shortage

Saying the last rainy season was not as rainy as it should have been amid climate change and noting a peren- nial challenge in the dry season, he said his ministry is working with WASA to ensure an equitable distribution of available supplies. He recalled recently telling Parliament that the country’s four reservoirs are “up to expected level capacity at this time”.

He related, “I pointed out there was no water shortage. The issue is are we able to provide water 24 hours a day to every citizen, every household, every business institution in TT 24 hours a day. As I said that is not yet the case. It remains an aspiration.” Refuting rumours, Hinds said the hospitals at Mount Hope have adequate water tanks and are under no threat. He accused some persons of stirring up strife among citizens over water and so “behaving like terrorists”.

Hinds said the United National Congress (UNC) had mismanaged millions of dollars that could otherwise have been used to improve water-supply.

He denied any political discrimination in water provision saying the Government serves all.

Ramdeen earlier said residents are suffering water woes in areas as diverse as Brazil, Morvant, Five Rivers, Maraval, Barrackpore, Debe, St Joseph, and Mt D’Or. “What’s really going on?” he mulled. He lamented that residents of areas such as Fullerton and Icacos have not had water for 45 days, leaving small children to have to resort to carry buckets of water from nearby river. He alleged a water-supply black market where a truckload sells for $1,000.

Opposition Senator Wayne Sturge said there exist two Trinidad’s – one of tall buildings and one of water shortages. He said he grew up in Belmont amid water shortages, where he said nothing has changed, but that in west Trinidad where he now lives there is no water shortage.

“I can’t remember a single day in West Trinidad in which I did not have water. It does not have a water shortage in Hillsboro, Maraval where the Minister (Hinds) lives, but in areas that rejected the PNM there is a shortage.” Energy Minister, Franklin Khan, said the former UNC government up to 2001 had made people think they’d almost reached water for all.

Challenging Ramdeen’s figures that UNC regimes supply better than PNM regimes, Khan said,“You don’t use statistics to play the fool and try to fool the population.” Saying TT produces 187 gallons per person per day, Khan said the issue is not production of water, but distribution.

He said communities far from distribution and at high elevations have distribution woes. Khan said water distribution is also hurt by an aging infrastructure.

He said those close to the source and on the distribution system get water, but with the best will in the world, no-one could give Fullerton a full-time water supply.