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CCNTV6
  • 1 year ago
As the 2025 dry season starts, there are concerns over the water supply. Despite lower reserves at the Caroni Water Treatment Plant, the Water and Sewerage Authority assures the nation there will be no water restrictions and the customer supply will not be affected.

Josette Deonanan has the details.
Transcript
00:00The Karani Water Treatment Plant, the largest facility of its kind in the country, currently
00:05operates at 78.95% capacity, a significant drop from its long-term average of 92.9%,
00:13as a consequence of the dry season in 2024, the authority said.
00:17Particularly, the Karani River was impacted heavily due to the low normal rainfall, but
00:22also not only was impacted by low than normal rainfall, but unregulated upstream water abstraction.
00:29And as a direct result, the Karani Treatment Plant was on occasion unable to maintain optimal
00:35production of 75 million impure gallons a day.
00:38In contrast, reservoirs like Hollis, Navit and Hillsborough are operating above their
00:43long-term averages.
00:45However, WASA's CEO, Keith Ray Halliday, has emphasized that no restrictions will be imposed
00:51during this period, but he is instead urging citizens to adopt water conservation as a
00:56way of life.
00:57There are no restrictions in place, and I repeat that, there are currently no restrictions
01:02in place.
01:04The notion and the efforts that we would want to stress would be that of collective conservation
01:10and the careful use of our water resources as key.
01:13While historically the dry season presents challenges, WASA says they are already taking
01:18proactive steps to ensure a consistent supply.
01:21Over the past two years, the authority has completed 200 projects aimed at increasing
01:26water production and improving distribution networks.
01:29Director of Water Management Services, Shaira Ali, detailed several initiatives.
01:34First and foremost, to increase our capacity, and by saying so, what it meant was ramping
01:40up our well development program.
01:43This well development program sought to drill new wells to add additional grown water sources
01:50throughout Trinidad and also Tobago.
01:54We would have added over 26 wells over this period of time with in excess of over 5 million
02:01gallons of water, and recently we have ramped up our activity in the program to start wells
02:09in the deep south area.
02:11So three wells, adding an additional 600,000 gallons of water per day in areas to benefit
02:19such as Icacos, Granville, Palo Seco, and in addition to support this well development
02:26in that area, we would have also introduced eight kilometers of new pipeline.
02:32This new pipeline was of course very instrumental in not only transferring the ground water
02:38to its treatment facility, but also importantly to integrate into the distribution network.
02:44Additionally, WASA is utilizing funding from the Inter-American Development Bank to develop
02:49new treatment plants and rehabilitate existing facilities.
02:53We are very soon to embark on another ceremony here in Trinidad, and that's for the Santa
02:59Cruz water treatment plant.
03:01That water treatment facility is much needed because it serves two purposes, and the director
03:07here for the northwest area will tell you, when that facility is commissioned, it will
03:12not only bring new supply to the community of Santa Cruz, but give us the ability to
03:19redirect or re-assign supply from the Kearney water treatment plant, the facility that we
03:25all know, into other hard hit areas.
03:28In Tobago, WASA's advancing works on the Goldsboro water treatment plant to enhance the island's
03:33water security.
03:35Across the nation, upgrades to booster stations, leak repairs, and pipeline replacements are
03:39being prioritized.
03:41With these measures in place and a hopeful outlook tied to a wetter-than-usual dry season,
03:46the authority remains confident it can navigate the challenges of the 2025 dry season without
03:51restrictions.
03:52Josette Deuninan, TV6 News.
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