Tancoo: Utter contempt by WASA to cancel meeting minutes before start

MP Dave Tancoo speaks to disappointed citizens of Oro-West who have been turned away due to WASA’s cancellation of meeting.

MP for Oropouche West, Dave Tancoo says that the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) has shown utter contempt and disrespect to the people of South Trinidad by cancelling a public meeting carded for this evening at the SanSec Complex, only minutes prior to its start time.

Tancoo advises, “I am advised that the Ministry has authorized the cancellation of the meeting at which WASA was supposed to listen to the concerns of residents of the Southern peninsula and provide details of WASA’s plans to address the critical water shortage issues facing over 200,000 persons. What is disheartening is the cancellation came a mere hour and a quarter before the scheduled start of the meeting. Representatives were also already on location, having travelled from as far as Cedros to ensure that their voices would be heard and to hear for themselves what WASA’s plans were. Church services at the venue were also postponed to facilitate persons attending the meeting.

The continued contempt by the Minister of Public Utilities to provide clear direction to tax-paying residents of South and Central Trinidad and to account for his failure to provide a regular supply of water, or even to keep to the schedule that WASA keeps issuing is unacceptable. It is heartless and shameful that in 2023 in Trinidad & Tobago, people have no water to wash clothes, to cook with or to fulfill their basic sanitary requirements, while thousands of gallons continue to be wasted through leaks in other parts of the country.

I call on the Minister of Public Utilities to stop playing water politics with citizens’ lives. I call on Officials from WASA to acknowledge their responsibility to report to citizens about how WASA plans to treat with the critical water shortage affecting their lives. It is reprehensible that we would have spent thousands of dollars to promote this meeting, to give WASA a chance to promote its plans and policies and instead of being forthcoming the Authority is told to duck and run. This is a classic example of the PNM’s refusal to account to citizens for the billions of dollars being spent and I fear that it is one more nail that the Minister is placing in the WASA coffin. What was started as an attempt to mend fences between WASA and frustrated residents has ended up being a most disgusting refusal to provide information to the very people that pay their salaries. The statement by WASA that the meeting was not in the format that was expected is the weakest excuse possible and completely disgraceful”.

Tancoo stated that many residents have complained about being without pipe borne water for as much as 31 days . He stated that many were unable to afford to pay the $400 to $500 for a private supply given that the truck borne supply from WASA is oversubscribed as even the Minister was forced to admit, due to the chronic shortage.

MP Tancoo cautioned that until people become more vocal about their disgust in the way the Government keeps treating them, things will only get worse.