OROPOUCHE West MP Davendranath Tancoo is challenging Minister of Public Utilities Marvin Gonzales to meet the residents of his constituency.
In a release on Wednesday, he said, “If the Minister has a plan, meet with the interest groups and discuss it. If not, stop playing these cowardly games. Resign and let someone else do the job.”
Tancoo said that Gonzales visited Oropouche West “clandestinely” over the weekend so he could have issued a press release to say that residents are not getting an acceptable water supply.
The Oropouche West MP described this as “disgusting PR gimmickry.”
Tanco said if Gonzales had engaged the MP and councillors in Oropouche West, “We could have arranged for him to meet affected residents and he would have learned that many are without water for up to 21 days, substantially worse than the nine-day cycle he claims and when the supply is received it is brief and inadequate.”
He said Gonzales proposed solution to the irregular water supply is perhaps WASA can get close to 700,000 gallons of additional water to go into the Penal Water Treatment Plant, which in his calculation would improve the levels of service from once every nine days to three days a week at minimum.
Tancoo said, “The minister provided absolutely no concrete delivery schedule or real project timelines when these grand plans will be achieved. After seven years this PNM minister offers nothing except vague promises with no real intention or plan to truthfully address the crises of unemployment and economic development facing this country.”
He said, “I challenge the minister to meet with residents and their representatives to provide genuine specifications of these plans. If the minister refuses, then it confirms what we already suspect: that the Minister of Public Utilities is taking the population of South Trinidad as fools and that is as shameful as it is unacceptable.”
