THE Opposition begged the Government and the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) to be more compassionate and stop the disconnection of water to delinquent customers during this hard times because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Business owners, individuals, the minimum wage worker, the person that depends on daily paid jobs are grappling with serious financial difficulties and collapse. Then the WASA board bright idea to cut water supply with shutdowns in place across the island.
Everyone is bawling and what makes it harder are the further restrictions on public holidays where curfew hours have been increased to allow only pharmacies, funeral homes and churches to open from 5am to 10am.
WASA, water is life. It is quite different from other government-provided utilities especially in a pandemic where we must wash our hands constantly to keep the virus at bay.
Water is needed more to effectively stop the spread of the virus, which is of more of a necessity now for life and for people’s survival.
Why deny water now during this horrific time when it is so important and needed more than ever for our basic human dignity to just survive. The citizens also begged and pleaded for the Government to have a heart! It is not just another material or utility such as electricity or telephones, it is essential for ensuring the safe practices of our health protocols especially in cleaning surfaces and washing hands or showering to prevent the spread of the virus.
It therefore, cannot be right that Minister of Public Utilities Marvin Gonzales and the Government to believe that this was a reasonable step to take, to cut water supplies under these circumstances.
The increased hardships on the daily paid workers and people that live from day to day with minimum wages are suffering so terribly already.
It was heart wrenching that WASA had taken this action last week during the Covid-19 pandemic still so rampant, when people cannot work to make a living, not able to access rent relief programmes properly or pay their loans and mortgages.
This course of action alone could have caused more catastrophic fallout to the likes we have never seen in our lifetime. Another opportunity to spread the virus indiscriminately as the Rowley-led Government seemed to be ensuring we cannot survive the social and economic fallout post Covid-19.
The economic downturn, the crime rate and our people on the breadline are atrocious and all we can hear are curfew restrictions after restrictions and now we saw this harsh heartless move on the poorer people within our communities, where they are already stretched to the limit.
There are hundreds of families who are not able put food on the table, struggling to get basic food items and vital supplies for their children and themselves and now they were disconnecting their water supply.
These citizens are doing everything humanly possible to stay afloat to survive including obeying the harsh restrictions, tightening their belts, managing online schooling for their children with the increase cost of tablets, laptops, WiFi fees and this new blow last week seemed definitely the final nail in the coffin.
The Government and the public utilities minister realised that our people were stressed out, tired and hurting and on the verge of demise. They therefore reversed the measures of cutting people supplies of water. WASA and the Ministry of Public Utilities have come to their senses and discontinued their disconnecting drive of people water supplies in these hard times.
They realised now wasn’t the time to take these measures but not before the Opposition and the general public pleaded to reverse the decision. I mean how can they really think this was appropriate at this time!
Neil Gosine is an insurance executive, the North East Regional Coordinator of the United National Congress and a former chairman of NP. The comments and opinions expressed by him in this column are not necessarily those of AZPNews.com, a division of Complete Image Limited.
Everyone is Bawling: WASA Wants to Cut Your Water Supply
THE Opposition begged the Government and the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) to be more compassionate and stop the disconnection of water to delinquent customers during this hard times because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Business owners, individuals, the minimum wage worker, the person that depends on daily paid jobs are grappling with serious financial difficulties and collapse. Then the WASA board bright idea to cut water supply with shutdowns in place across the island.
Everyone is bawling and what makes it harder are the further restrictions on public holidays where curfew hours have been increased to allow only pharmacies, funeral homes and churches to open from 5am to 10am.
WASA, water is life. It is quite different from other government-provided utilities especially in a pandemic where we must wash our hands constantly to keep the virus at bay.
Water is needed more to effectively stop the spread of the virus, which is of more of a necessity now for life and for people’s survival.
Why deny water now during this horrific time when it is so important and needed more than ever for our basic human dignity to just survive. The citizens also begged and pleaded for the Government to have a heart! It is not just another material or utility such as electricity or telephones, it is essential for ensuring the safe practices of our health protocols especially in cleaning surfaces and washing hands or showering to prevent the spread of the virus.
It therefore, cannot be right that Minister of Public Utilities Marvin Gonzales and the Government to believe that this was a reasonable step to take, to cut water supplies under these circumstances.
The increased hardships on the daily paid workers and people that live from day to day with minimum wages are suffering so terribly already.
It was heart wrenching that WASA had taken this action last week during the Covid-19 pandemic still so rampant, when people cannot work to make a living, not able to access rent relief programmes properly or pay their loans and mortgages.
This course of action alone could have caused more catastrophic fallout to the likes we have never seen in our lifetime. Another opportunity to spread the virus indiscriminately as the Rowley-led Government seemed to be ensuring we cannot survive the social and economic fallout post Covid-19.
The economic downturn, the crime rate and our people on the breadline are atrocious and all we can hear are curfew restrictions after restrictions and now we saw this harsh heartless move on the poorer people within our communities, where they are already stretched to the limit.
There are hundreds of families who are not able put food on the table, struggling to get basic food items and vital supplies for their children and themselves and now they were disconnecting their water supply.
These citizens are doing everything humanly possible to stay afloat to survive including obeying the harsh restrictions, tightening their belts, managing online schooling for their children with the increase cost of tablets, laptops, WiFi fees and this new blow last week seemed definitely the final nail in the coffin.
The Government and the public utilities minister realised that our people were stressed out, tired and hurting and on the verge of demise. They therefore reversed the measures of cutting people supplies of water. WASA and the Ministry of Public Utilities have come to their senses and discontinued their disconnecting drive of people water supplies in these hard times.
They realised now wasn’t the time to take these measures but not before the Opposition and the general public pleaded to reverse the decision. I mean how can they really think this was appropriate at this time!
Neil Gosine is an insurance executive, the North East Regional Coordinator of the United National Congress and a former chairman of NP. The comments and opinions expressed by him in this column are not necessarily those of AZPNews.com, a division of Complete Image Limited.