(Trinidad Guardian) Thousands of residents across Trinidad were left to hang dry after begging and pleading for water for the past three days.
With no pipe-borne water for over 72 hours, people from several parts of north Trinidad have not been able to bathe, cook or even go to work. This situation follows a ruptured Water and Sewerage Authority’s (WASA) pipeline at the Caroni Water Treatment Plant.
As Guardian Media visited several affected areas including Aranguez, Barataria, Morvant, and Laventille yesterday, the cries of the people were all the same—“they don’t just want water, they need water”.
70-year-old Sita Sinanan, from Oudai Street, Aranguez, said as a pensioner she feels hopeless after all her calls to the Water and Sewerage Authority have gone unanswered.
Sinanan said, “Three days now, no water. How do you expect pensioners to live? Where do you expect us to get water from?
“You can’t do your laundry. You can’t shower. You can’t cook since Sunday. I cooked yesterday (Thursday) when I got a little drip, drip of water.”
Another resident of Oudai Street, Jamel Ally said, “I have a three-year-old daughter and I can’t go to work today because there’s no water. I had to postpone my daily work. There’s no water to cook, no water to use the toilet, we got nothing. I’m renting here and the landlord doesn’t even have tanks. I had to buy a barrel of water and that was almost finished too.”
Marcus Mahabir, of Aranguez, said he too had to purchase water.
Mahabir said it cost him $400 to purchase 1,000 gallons of water on Thursday for his household of six. However, by Friday, the water was almost done.
He said he was unable to continue to buy water because it is costing him too much. Not only has the water shortage been costing WASA customers, but farmers said they too are fearful that if they continue without a pipe-borne supply, they may lose thousands of dollars in crops as well.
Aranguez farmer Ricardo Mohammed said, “I have cabbage, pak choi, tomatoes and I just tractor down a bunch of lettuce because there’s no water … If the rain does not fall tomorrow (Saturday), I’m definitely going to lose all my crops. That’s going to be a big cost, a big loss to me. I have workers that I have to pay, and we don’t have water, so they can’t even work.”
Meanwhile, Aranguez businessman Christopher Ferriera said his business has been affected because not only is there no water in his workplace, but his employees have also been having water issues at home.
When Guardian Media visited his business, Epic Printing Supplies, Ferriera also had no electricity for over 24 hours.
Across in Morvant-Laventille, there were at least 30 elderly people in a geriatric home who, in addition to their health issues, were left to suffer from dry taps.
Speaking to Guardian Media, a nurse from the elderly home, Almaz Mitchell said, “We’ve been having a really difficult time because we cannot bathe the patients in the morning. We can’t cook for them. We need water to feed them. We can’t even give them water and they need to drink a lot of water. We have old people here. We have people with mental issues as well, so not having water is a huge inconvenience to us and the healthcare of these people. One day is something, but for so many days it’s becoming overbearing now.”
70-year-old Leonora Williams, from Morvant, said while she and her daughters have three tanks and barrels at home, the tanks have all gone empty and the water in the barrels are close to finishing.
Some people have been unable to carry out construction work due to the water shortage.
In the Barataria area, one homeowner, Daryl Daniel, and his workers were left in distress as they were unable to complete construction on a house on Eight Street.
Daniel said, “I’ve been calling WASA and all they keep saying is they’re working on it, but it’s been three days now. We need someone from WASA to update their customers with accurate information because we are suffering. It’s affecting us in a big way. Look, I have construction to do here, and I can’t even get it done. I have to pay my workers for coming out, but it doesn’t even have water to mix cement.”
Next door to Daniel, there was a nursery and preschool with dozens of children, and they too had no water.
Without water in their pipelines and barrels of water now empty, several people said they had to resort to the struggles of the old days by going to a standpipe. But even there, the taps were dry.