“You cannot put a guard to watch the guard.”
That’s according to Public Utilities Minister Barry Padarath, who says his Ministry will now assume an oversight role to ensure communities promised water by the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) actually receive it.
Speaking on Talk City 91.1FM, Minister Padarath revealed that his Ministry has introduced a new accountability framework under which it will independently test and verify WASA’s water-supply schedules.
He explained that accountability has been missing for years, leaving citizens frustrated and misled by unreliable water schedules.
“We have got the relevant personnel, etc. to assist us in monitoring. And therefore, once I have that data, then I’m able to tell WASA listen, you are not keeping your mandate. And these are the changes that we need to make. And therefore, somebody has to be held accountable, that if you promise the citizens of Maraval and Maracas and Las Cuevas that they are getting water on Monday and it doesn’t happen, then somebody has to be held accountable for it. It cannot be that nobody’s guarding the guard.”
The Minister revealed that Expressions of Interest for major desalination plants will be issued by the end of this month.
This, he said, would be key to relieving chronic water shortages across the country, adding that Mayaro has been earmarked, with plans for other areas.
“We are looking at establishing one in Mayaro that will service this entire East Coast. You’re looking at one in Moruga/Tableland that will look after Moruga/Tableland, Princes Town, Naparima, Siparia, Oropouche East, Oropouche West, La Brea, Point Fortin, etc. And then you are looking at doing it in Central, the Freeport Water Treatment Plant, which has gotten Cabinet approval last week. And therefore, in six months, the people of Central can expect a greater supply of water in that area.”
Minister Padarath said these are long-term solutions to T&T’s worsening water supply crisis, noting that ageing infrastructure and depleted dams continue to strain the national system.
“That has been the main challenge across the East West Corridor and North West Trinidad: the aged, dilapidated infrastructure. This has been gone unattended to over the number of years. In particular, the situation has gone from bad to worse. I don’t know when last you took a drive down the Western Main Road, down to Chaguaramas, but working with Ministry of Works and Ministry of Public Utilities, we have been attempting to deal with that ageing infrastructure where you have collapsed mains across that Western Main Road that went unattended to for a number of years.”
Minister Padarath said the desalination programme will complement other short-term interventions, including water trucking and infrastructure repairs.