Water, water, everywhere

But I didn’t know what it meant. To me “waste” just related to the food I refused to eat and constantly warned about one day wishing I’d guzzled it up. Water wasn’t food. Only as a teenager when I read the poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by the 18thC Romantic poet, Coleridge, that I fully understood what having water was all about.

For those of you who didn’t have a colonial education, the English expression “to have an albatross around your neck” comes from that tale of a mariner who wantonly slays the long-winged, large-bodied bird that has been hanging around his vessel. He and his crew have to pay the price by being perfectly becalmed in a lengthy drought at sea.

“Day after day, day after day/ We stuck, ne breath ne motion./ As idle as a painted ship/ Upon a painted Ocean.” And “every tongue through utter drought was withered at the root”, although ironically they were surrounded by water. “Water, water every where/ And all the boards did shrin.k/ Water, water, everywhere? Nor any drop to drink.”

The imagery did the trick. I can put my hand on my heart and say I never waste water. That’s not something many Trinbagonians can claim. Wasting water is something we have always done, even when there wasn’t much of it around in pipes during my childhood. The number of indoor sinks and taps a house had was definitely a measure of status since so many TT citizens had to queue up at standpipes to collect the precious liquid that is the fountain of life.

Often no one bothered to turn off those taps. As we drove along I would count the number of beautiful rainbow streams of liquid silver glistening in the sunlight, mile after mile.

Sometimes it wasn’t carelessness or forgetfulness but that the taps would break down, very regularly, requiring “washers”. I still do not really know why they are so badly manufactured that they need constant replacement that would take weeks, maybe months, to accomplish.

Now that 91 percent of Trinbagonians have reasonable access to drinking water, according to the recent 2006 UNDP Report, the nation seems to have completely forgotten that water is one of our most important resources.

The Report ranks TT 57th in the world, which means we are some way behind many other countries in dealing with the challenges of having a correct and well-managed water policy.

It would be fair to say that we are squandering another of our valuable gifts.

Almost everywhere there’s evidence of it. By the time I finish writing this, thousands, I would guess, cubic metres of water would have gushed down just one hilly road in the western part of the Northern Range, needlessly filling those gullies and drains, and it has happened at very regular intervals for decades. Apparently, it would cost several $millions to fix just those outdated and broken subterranean pipes that have caused parts of that road to sink and be dug up every few months and toyed with.

Multiply that problem by the hundreds of similar instances of chronic pipe decay and the repair bill runs to TT$27billions. Some of the 6000 kilometres of pipes were laid in 1853, many of them are made of cast iron and need replacement. It’s not an easy problem to fix but it need never had got that bad. Some people I know are so outraged by WASA’s wastefulness that they feel no urge to turn off their own taps, especially since they pay a high price for water and feel it is theirs to do with as they please. Let WASA lead by example, I’ve heard it said.

The United Nations Development Programme Report focuses on water as a health hazard. Where I live in Port-of-Spain the water is so impure that on opening the tap in the mornings the pungent scent of human waste is overpowering.

The taste is so offensive that not even boiled and poured onto huge spoonfuls of strong Hong Wing coffee can it be tolerated. Its colour is pale orange. I have had to give up wearing white garments as they have all become the same colour as the water. I cannot imagine what harm is done to us by inhaling it and absorbing it through our pores.

The UNDP recommends treating water as a human right. I am all for that. I suggest we add the principle to the draft TT Constitution — Clean, clear drinking water for all.