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Water woes plague rural south Trinidad
TYRELL GITTENS
YESTERDAY
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Charran Francis of Ecclesville Road, Rio Claro, hardly got time to stock up on water. - Photo by
Marvin Hamilton

Rosanna Baliram has lived in Ecclesville, Rio Claro, for more than 35 years
and in that time, she says she’s never received a consistent water supply.

Baliram is just one of the area’s many residents asking the Water and
Sewerage Authority (WASA) to address their water woes.

At the time of Newsday’s visit to Baliram’s Ledgen Street home on

Thursday, she had not had water for a week.

She told Newsday, “We have real problems for water…look, we didn’t get
none for this week yet.

“We’ve had this problem from ever since I’ve known myself living here.
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“Sometimes we may get water twice for the week, sometimes it’ll be nearly
two weeks we don’t get water, and sometimes it may be a whole month.”

Keron Kallicharan, a resident of Mafeking, is among those who have been experiencing water
issues within the community for several months. He is forced to catch rainwater to fill his tanks.
- Photo by Marvin Hamilton
Baliram has four water tanks and tries to conserve water. But despite her
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efforts, the water she gets is just not enough, especially when the area
doesn’t get water for long periods.

She laments, “For me, if I get water once for the week and it comes with
pressure, I usually fill up everything and it sometimes lasts.

“But what about people who have children, and they only have one tank?”

Shaffiron Mohammed lives a stone’s throw away. Over three years ago,
Mohammed paid WASA to be connected to the area’s main line.

However, she’s still waiting for WASA to visit her home and do the
necessary work.

A frustrated Mohammed told Newsday, “We apply for the water, we done
pay and everything.

“Before covid, they said they would come and connect us…they never came.
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“We pay $1,500 for the connection and they never came.”

Mohammed depends on heavy rain to fill her water tanks.

At times, she also gets an inconsistent supply of water from her aunt, who
lives next door, or from the Mayaro/Rio Claro Regional Corporation

The situation is unsustainable, she says.

“I does pray to God for rain to fall to get some water, or otherwise I won’t
get water.

“Right now my six tanks are empty – and I have three little children living
here.

“I have the toilet to flush, I have house to mop and I have clothes to wash.”

Mother and daughter, Shaffron Mohammed and Shandie Shardie are among residents of
Ecclesville who depend on rainwater to have their water tanks filled. They claimed the
community hardly ever gets pipe-borne water. - Photo by Marvin Hamilton
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Mohammed has built a small food shed in front of her house but has been
unable to run it because iof the water problems.

Her daughter Shandie Shardie lives in Enid Village, not far from
Ecclesville.

Shardie faces the same water problems but even when she does get an
inconsistent supply, she says the quality is poor.

“The water that is coming in the pipe these days is very brown, like if they
are sending mauby. And when they do send water, it’s all kind of 1 o’clock
and 2 o’clock in the morning.”

“We would like to have water in the village a little more often so people can
survive, because people in here have children.”
Driving along Rio Claro Mayaro Road, Newsday met Charran Francis.
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At the front of his home, Francis had filled more than a dozen soft drink
bottles below a standpipe. He told Newsday they are part of his water
reserves.

“We don’t get water often. Sometimes we don’t get water for two weeks,
and sometimes we have to buy water from the truck.

“This issue has been going on since we got water in the village around 2015.

“They (the authorities) talk about it a lot but nothing is happening.”

In Mafeking, Mayaro, residents are at breaking point and have lost hope
that their water troubles will be resolved.
Because Tara Rampersad consistently calls WASA to complain about the
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area’s water issues, she claims she has been nicknamed “troublesome Tara”
by the authority.

Rampersad lives in Bristol Road, Mafeking. When Newsday visited the

street, Rampersad said it had not received a water supply for more than
two weeks.

“If we don’t call, make a request and beg and beg and beg, we don’t even
get the water.

“When we call WASA, they’ll say they have us on a standard list, which is
three days for the week – and we don’t get that.”

“It’s been more than 15 days we don’t have water now. Right now, nobody
in Bristol Road have water.”

Paul Prevatt was born and raised in Mafeking. He says the area didn’t
usually have such serious water problems until WASA did work on
pipelines there several years ago.

“They ran some lines on the two sides of the road and said it was to
improve water problems in the area. But since they’ve run the lines, it’s
been problems for water.

"Sometimes it’s a whole month we don’t get water."

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Tara Rampersad of Briston Road, opens a pipe in her yard. A frustrated Rampersad said water
doesn't come often and when it does it's for a short period. - Photo by Marvin Hamilton

The lines, he said, "were supposed to improve the water supply in the area,
but instead of improving, it got worse.”

Prevatt and several other residents in the area told Newsday WASA had
repeatedly said staff problems or damaged lines are the cause of the
problems.
Deo Gangadeen told Newsday people who live between Mafeking Junction
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and Bristol Road are among the worst affected.

With households going up to three weeks without water at times,

Gangadeen told Newsday he has become outspoken on the issue.

“Sometimes water may come three times for a week and then it goes for a
next 24 days.

“We (in Mafeking) depend on the corporation to give us a tank or two of

water when we don’t have now and how regular is that?"

He said the corporation has to supply the Mayaro/Rio Claro area.

He said Minister of Public Utilities Marvin Gonzales recently visited but

nothing has changed since.

When Newsday spoke with Gonzales about the concerns of the residents in
Ecclesville and Mafeking, Gonzales said they have not been ignored.

He said he is working with WASA, the regional corporation and Mayaro MP

Rushton Paray to bring relief.

In a document sent to Newsday, Gonzales notes that two wells in the

Mayaro area were recently put into action to improve the water supply. The
document also outlined ongoing and future rehabilitation work to wells and
pipelines in the Mayaro/Rio Claro region.

Newsday was unable to get a comment from Paray.

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