TANCOO: Rotting WASA and Heritage lines posing threat to residents
“Heritage Petroleum and WASA have failed to conduct basic maintenance works on their network of pipelines that are in danger of rupturing at the Woodland New Channel Bridge. This would be a major human and environmental disaster, one which can be avoided if they act now, sparing us the empty promises and rhetoric!” says MP for Oropouche West Davendranath Tancoo.
MP Tancoo’s comments came as he joined the call of activist Victor Roberts to avert two impending disasters in the Woodland area. Tancoo called on Heritage Petroleum Company Limited and WASA to attend to their respective pipelines to conduct preventative works immediately.
In a recent video posted on social media, Roberts visited the bridge at the Sudama Teerath in Woodland where the main pipeline transporting crude oil is already leaking due to rust in several spots. It will not be the first time that a Heritage Petroleum pipeline developed such a leak as happened in November 2020, polluting the New Cut Channel river, causing an environmental nightmare that saw the destruction of fishing and crustacean habitats, directly affecting the livelihoods and property of fisher-folk and residents in the area.
A major WASA pipeline also runs along this bridge and at present is rusted at each of the welded clamp points. While the residents already suffer from an infrequent and unpredictable water supply, any damage to this pipeline will further exacerbate an already untenable situation.
MP Tancoo stated that it cannot be that Heritage Petroleum and WASA are unaware of this danger. In the case of Heritage Petroleum, compensation to the fisher-folk and residents affected by the 2020 oil spill was slow in coming, while promises to repair the road that was damaged by the company to access the leak is yet to be fulfilled. Likewise, the weekly calls and entreaties by Woodland residents to WASA for a reliable water supply remain unheeded as even they don’t adhere to their own published water schedules. Residents are being forced to pay private truckers for water as WASA is unable to meet the demand for the truck-borne service. Should that main water pipeline rupture, the suffering of residents will increase exponentially.
With the dry season upon us, now is the time to repair both pipelines by each respective company states Tancoo. Also, the Ministry of Works and Transport needs to examine the structural integrity of that bridge as its collapse would mean untold distress for the residents of Woodland and the thousands of commuters who use that road as an alternate route to San Fernando, La Romaine, Otaheite, Fyzabad and Penal.