Tancoo to Government: Stop the water politics
Oropouche West MP Dave Tancoo is accusing the Minister of Public Utilities of triggering an unnecessary water crisis in his constituency as well as other water deprived areas throughout the country, by failing to utilize the finances that the Minister himself boasted were available for implementing water improvement solutions.
MP Tancoo asserts that the Rowley-led Government had previously identified solutions to the water crisis, pursued loans for those solutions yet the Minister of Public Utilities who is responsible for water management is now saying that those loans were never accessed.
“Despite knowing that hundreds of thousands of people were without water for months and despite boasting that the Government secured funding to solve their water woes, the Minister shamelessly only now tells the country that the loans were unutilized. Why?” asks the Oropouche West MP.
Tancoo is demanding that the Minister account to the nation by providing a detailed breakdown as to the purpose of the loans, scope of the planned projects, particularly those directed towards mitigating the water crisis in Oropouche West, as well as an explanation as to why those projects were abandoned.
The Opposition MP laments that residents of Penal, Woodland, San Francique, Pluck Road, Debe and elsewhere in Oropouche West are forced to spend thousands of dollars per month to fulfill their basic needs, while having to pay water rates for a basic, vital commodity that they do not receive. To make matters worse, residents are told that they must pay their water rates or they would not be facilitated with a truck borne water supply.
However, at a meeting held in Woodland last week, constituents reported that although they have religiously paid their water rates, they still had not received a pipe borne water supply for months! An incredulous Tancoo exclaimed, “These citizens are paying for a service they are not receiving. That is an abuse of process, and illegal! Moreover, Minister Gonzales has ignored all requests to provide specific timeframes for implementation of some obvious solutions promised three (3) years ago.”
The Opposition MP is calling on the Minister to provide a true and immediate account to the communities who feel discriminated against by this Government. “He (Gonzales) must say why, despite claims that this PNM Government had both the resources and solutions to the water crisis, the Government continues to refuse to act, in disservice to the frustrated citizens who, for yet another dry season, have no water. The government needs to stop playing games and water politics with the lives of the population and provide them with water.”