Golden opportunity for PM Rowley to shine

As a geologist, the fundamentals of engineering should not be alien to him.

Consequently, he would know that by simply changing our water distribution system from an inefficient one mainly dependent on pumps to one reliant on gravity, it would reduce cost and drastically improve our water distribution.

A great place to start would be in Moruga where the village of Marac is at the end of the distribution grid and rarely receives water.

WASA can in a short time place a distribution tank on one of the many hills overlooking Moruga, utilise the existing pumps to send water to that tank and distribute water via gravity to every household in the Moruga area.

That practice is common throughout the developed world.

In the very flat areas where there are no hills, water towers are constructed to allow for a gravity-fed distribution system.

Another area we look forward to immediate change is in road restoration. One expects that the new Minister of Public Utilities would insist that WASA puts in place a policy that road restoration becomes part of the repair activities when pipes are repaired or placed along our roadways.

It would not be surprising if, however, things remain the same.

Somehow governments past and present find great difficulty in doing simple things.

They complain about guns and drugs being brought in at our coastal villages and are unable to revive the closed-down marine police branch.

They speak of increasing levels of crime and are unable to put in place a structured police patrol in every community.

They speak of rebuilding TT and are unable to restructure local government and empower communities to have a say in their development.

They speak of development for our youths but fail to invest heavily in sports and new avenues of permanent employment for our young people.

Simple things like manufacturing tamper-proof licence plates and making vehicle transfers less complicated remain elusive while legislation that places huge fines and a further burden on drivers are rushed through Parliament.

It is not impossible for one to assume that our governments over the past 15 or more years have not been doing much to improve the quality of life for all our citizens. There are hundreds of NHA houses completed and not distributed.

Citizens crippled by crime are unable to access non-lethal devises to protect themselves and their families while criminals can boast of a multimillion dollar gun trade.

Thousands of acres of agricultural lands are left abandoned and subject to illegal occupancy.

Healthcare is at such a poor state that patients are on waiting lists for months to access urgent medical services like CT scans and life saving surgery.

The Prime Minister, like many others before him, is in a quandary.

The politics of TT can be said to be associated with gangs of criminal elements on the ground and groups of unscrupulous financiers at the top.

In the middle are the voters hoping that things will change while the politicians seek to satisfy the top and bottom, whose interest may not be in tandem with that which is best for TT.

Keith Rowley, the one who was brave enough to insist that PNM changes its modus operandi, can be the Prime Minister to make the changes necessary to rebuild our nation or be just another pawn in our hopeless attempt to govern ourselves efficiently.

STEVE ALVAREZ via email