00:00 Therefore, Madam Speaker, the Ministry of Public Utilities has taken a decision that
00:06 we will ensure that in the utility sector that there are policies in place that regardless
00:13 of whether or not there's a change in minister or a change in government, the policies and
00:19 the programs will ensure that we have a resilient and a protected utility sector, water and
00:27 electricity.
00:28 The minister said a national integrated water supply policy was designed by his ministry,
00:33 followed by a strategic action plan for water supply improvement for the short and medium
00:39 term.
00:40 He added that one short-term intervention is the community water improvement program.
00:45 He tells Parliament that the program has assisted several communities.
00:49 We laid down pipelines in Mokorapu Road in St. James, Boaty Road in Five Rivers, Manimor
00:56 Road in Five Rivers, Jitman Trace, Ojai Housing Development, Katwaru Extension, Katwaru Trace
01:05 in Pinal, Salaza Trace in Point 14, Ramuta Avenue in Ecclesville, Eccles Village in Guadalcarabamba
01:12 Keep, Mayfair Santa Cruz Pipeline Project, Bissoon Street, Faisabad, St. Albans in Valencia,
01:20 Polo Road Project in Pipeline, First Street in Mount Lambert, 8th Street in Mount Lambert,
01:27 First Avenue, Mount Lambert, Second Street in Barataria, Ramlogan Avenue, Guanapo Road,
01:34 Faisabad, Ramjet Kumar Street in St. James, just to name a few of projects all over.
01:41 Tobago was not left out of the minister's list.
01:43 A project which was discussed for years in Tobago, which is the desilting of the Hillsborough
01:50 Dam, a project that was discussed for years.
01:54 We were able to successfully conclude the desilting of the Hillsborough Dam to the tune
02:02 of $63 million with a cost savings of $10 million, a project that came under Manospeaker
02:12 by five months earlier, benefiting 15,000 citizens.
02:19 There was good news for the people of Freeport, as Minister Gonzalez said the three wells
02:23 announced earlier this year will be commissioned in three weeks.
02:27 Moving across to East Trinidad, he spoke of plans for the coming year which are expected
02:33 to benefit over 30,000 citizens.
02:36 The country would see early in 2024 the rollout of a number of plans, a number of projects
02:43 to refurbish the Guanapo Water Treatment Plant, which will serve the area of Arima and surrounding
02:50 areas over 30,000 citizens to increase water production by over 2 million gallons of water
02:57 per day, bringing the areas of Arima and surrounding areas to 24/7 supply of water.
03:03 In the same way we will be doing for the North Oropush Water Treatment Plant, which serves
03:08 the area of Manzanilla straight down to five rivers.
03:12 Aksha Galston, TV6 News.
03:14 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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