By Sue-Ann Wayow
SIXTEEN surface water treatment plants (WTPs) belonging to the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) are still out of operation in Trinidad.
This was announced by Minister of Public Utilities Marvin Gonzales at a press conference held on Monday morning at 11 am.
He said, “That is because in northeast Trinidad we continue to experience persistent rainfall.”
Gonzales added, “In one case, in the Guanapo area, WASA had to remove the equipment because of rising river levels. The Guanapo Water Treatment Plant produces one million gallons of water per day and it feeds the Arima area, Calvary, Mt Pleasant.”
Arima is currently has no pipe-borne water as a result.
Gonzales said that rising river conditions continue to be turbid and WASA needed to wait until conditions improve so that the necessary intervention and maintenance work can be done to restore the plant to full operation.
He said, “In the Aripo area, because of a massive landslip, a 16-inch raw water transmission line was fully disrupted.”
The minister said while going into the press conference he saw crews venturing into the treacherous areas in Aripo to restore the line. Full restoration of that line is expected by the end of Monday he said.
Gonzales said the screens at the Aripo intake will be cleaned and hopefully later on Sunday and into Monday, the Aripo WTP which services large areas in Arima, Santa Rosa, Wallerfield and surrounding communities, water supply in those areas would be normalised.
He said thankfully, operations at the two affected WTP in Tobago have been restored and water supply to WASA’s customers in Tobago should be stabilised by Monday into Tuesday.
Gonzales also asked persons to conserve water supply as WASA was experiencing challenges.
The minister said in the coming months, WASA will be looking to undergo rainwater collection which should aid in an increase on water supply.
