Public Utilities Minister Barry Padarath says Desalcott is expected to resume operations by Thursday, bringing some relief to ongoing water supply challenges across the country.
The annual planned maintenance shutdown commenced on Monday, September 28th, and was expected to be back online by Sunday, October 4th.
Speaking to reporters at Powergen’s National Schools’ Debate Competition on Tuesday, Minister Padarath said there were some unexpected delays but assured that the desalination plant would be back up by Thursday.
“With respect to Desalcott, they had some unforeseen circumstances. As you know, this is an annual exercise of Desalcott in terms of their maintenance. We usually try to get, since coming into office, the maintenance works done prior to hectic periods of Divali, Christmas, etc. They had some mechanical issues at the facility, and therefore that has created some delays there, but they have given us the assurance that we will be back up looking at Thursday of this week.”
Meanwhile, Minister Padarath said water production remains under pressure as all major reservoirs have fallen below 70% capacity.
“I’m very firm with that with respect to WASA in terms of the release of water and maintaining the schedules. However, understanding the limitations that we are experiencing with respect to El Niño and the dam levels, all of the dams are right now below 70% capacity. Traditionally, in the months of September, October, November, that’s when you see the largest amount of rainfall that will impact upon the dams in terms of getting us to full capacity.”
To help offset shortages, he said Government is looking at increasing available supplies from several sources, including additional output from Desalcott.
“It’s not an issue of distribution; it’s an issue of production. While El Niño continues to plague us, and not only us here in Trinidad and Tobago, but throughout the Caribbean and other parts of the world, it is a real challenge, and we’re looking at steps to try to mitigate that in terms of putting on additional water from Desalcott, as well as exploring additional water from wells and other resources that are available to us right now.”
Minister Padarath added that WASA has also redeployed additional water trucks to affected areas and is examining further measures to improve supply while reservoir levels remain low.