Woodbrook suffering from putrid water

THE EDITOR: Please publish this letter to WASA on behalf of the residents of Woodbrook.

TO:The Chief Executive Officer, WASA

Over the past few years, Woodbrook has been afflicted  with the curse of having to use a filthy brown liquid  that is supposed to pass for water, but which, as far as I  am concerned, is more akin to the water that you pass. Frequent complaints to WASA and letters to the press have fallen on deaf ears and we residents have resorted to filtering and boiling the water — others coming to terms with this daily tribulation by saying that there are entire areas in Trinidad and Tobago that would be glad for this abomination because they either do not have any coming through their pipes, or if it does, it is an infrequent supply. I feel really sorry for the people of these communities, but that must not and will not temper the injustice and rage I feel at being denied a proper supply of this essential commodity.  

In despair, my family and I installed a filter near to the source  entry line, but about two years ago, this had to be abandoned because, after two weeks, it became so clogged that absolutely no water could pass through to the pipes. God knows that I, who have inhabited the First World — where  never a single day of those 12 years have I experienced any water problem whatsoever — have tried to make this terrible mental and physical readjustment to the fact that this primary and fundamental necessity is a luxury in this land of ours!  But it is impossible for me to accept this intolerable reality! I read in the press recently that there might be financial redress for those who pay their bills and get no water, but what compensation can ever be given for the havoc wreaked on our bodies, internally and externally, by this travesty of H2O? How can we ever be compensated for the many white and light-coloured clothes and sheets that have become dingy and useless on being washed in unclean water, the numerous  washing machines, water  heaters and tanks, appliances like kettles, taps and the many household surfaces that have, respectively, become dysfunctional and/or  permanently discoloured because of this inferior liquid? The inordinate amount of time and money spent trying to sanitise this ‘water’ which is certainly slowly killing all of us, and for which — Oh supreme irony! — we are handsomely paying you, WASA, is totally counter productive.

According to a policy of the past UNC government, water was intended for all within a very short time frame. The present PNM is aiming at First-world status for this country by 2020.
Whenever I turned on my taps in the past few years and now, the foul flow  belied the first, and makes the prediction of the second, “pie-in-the-sky,” since the water given, under these two regimes, is just good for flushing your toilet — and even that is not good enough since it will eventually discolour your toilet bowl if you do not keep putting Javex in it constantly. I and many people have not forgotten that you WASA were not even competent enough to secure our water resources — I refer to that incident, a few years ago, when a dead body was found in one of your dams. Your incompetence has increased since then, because this  dirty water seems to be steadily deteriorating. We, the residents of Woodbrook and all the people who are suffering from having to use putrid water, or getting no water at all, have to organise a crusade against this infringement of our basic human rights. You, WASA, and the government of Trinidad and Tobago, have been allowed to get away with this criminal behaviour for too long.

I have no doubt that all the people in authority have expensive filter systems and can afford to buy those huge bottles of purified water in the supermarkets. With regard to the latter, our rights to clean water and water, period, are being infringed and abused when the water we should be getting is being used by these industries which the government has permitted to purify and bottle, to sell it to the very people to whom it belongs. A true case of adding insult to injury! I am going to get some legal advice as to what can be done about this criminal negligence of WASA and the government, and start some serious community networking, so that we can bring to bear the force of our collective will. WASA, we demand water for all and clean water for everybody — not that murky mess!!

DIANNE NICHOLLS
Woodbrook resident