Water restrictions are on the agenda for the entire country as the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) heeds the warning of the Meteorological Service to brace for a harsh dry season.
Asked about the anticipated shortfall in its supply and how it intends to satisfy its thousands of customers during the drought, the authority’s senior manager of corporate communications Daniel Plenty said a statement on the authority’s plans would be issued shortly.
Two months into the dry season, Chief Secretary of the Tobago House of Assembly Orville London said Tobago was already feeling the weight of a serious water crisis.
However, the San Fernando Business Association (SFBA) said its members were not waiting for WASA to tell them what to do.
The association’s president Daphne Bartlett said her members, which included people who own and operate restaurants, food outlets and hotels, were already putting mechanisms in place to counter the anticipated shortfall.
“Owners of buildings, they have already taken in front and they have ensured that their water tank storage is adequate. They are keeping on top of it because this is not the first time they would be experiencing that.”
Bartlett said even micro entrepreneurs who operated car washes knew how to cope.
“Most people who wash cars use buckets. They have their tanks ready and use buckets to wash vehicles. The general public just have to realise what we are into and work accordingly and not waste water.”
Taking a jab at the Tobago water crisis, Bartlett said this is not new and wondered why after so much money had been allocated to Tobago, the situation had not been corrected.
“Every single summer time it is the same drama,” Bartlett said.
Kendall Clement, Facilities Department supervisor at The Vehicle Management Corporation of T&T, said VMCOTT, which operates an automatic car wash in San Fernando, would be meeting between today and tomorrow to discuss the pending dry spell.
Clement said the company has a water storage capacity of 20,000 gallons, but depending on the supply consideration would be given to their opening hours or removing some of the features which used more water.
In a recent release the Met office said, “The outlook for the 2016 dry season indicates a harsh dry season will most likely occur, with odds that are highest for below average rainfall totals for the season overall, across the entire country.”
The Met Office said it expected the first half of the season from January to March to be particularly hot and dry with below average rainfall totals and hotter than average daytime and night time temperatures forecast across all areas of the country.
In Tobago, which depends heavily on tourism for its economic viability, London said the water situation to date was both challenging and critical.
London advised that both Trinidad and Tobago have been put on a drought alert for this coming dry season and expressed hope that WASA could adopt effective measures to mitigate the effects of the water shortage.
At last Wednesday’s post-Executive Council media briefing at the Administrative Complex, Calder Hall, London said he spoke with the manager of the WASA Tobago District, who confirmed that the water situation was quite challenging.
“Year-on-year there is a decline in the water levels in all the major sources,” the Chief Secretary told reporters.
“I am hoping that sooner rather than later that efforts would materialise by putting in place the promise for the operationalising of the wells that have been tested last year because that might be the quickest way for us to alleviate the situation.
“An investment in operationalising those wells will give us an additional four million gallons a day,” London said.
“If we are talking now in February the situation is that critical, and if we do not do something quickly, we are going to have a more challenging period than last dry season.”
He called on Tobagonians to conserve water.
“We the people have to do what can be done in order not to exacerbate the situation. We have to really control the use of water and we have to be parsimonious in the way in which we utilise water in the next many months because the situation is critical,” London said.
While he gave the assurance that the THA would do all it could to encourage WASA to bring those wells on stream, he appealed to Tobagonians to play their role in ensuring they didn’t worsen the situation.