Although the water supply was restored to Port-of-Spain and west Trinidad yesterday after two days of interruption Downtown Owners & Merchants Association (DOMA) president, Gregory Aboud, has remained peeved.
He said businesses and residents got back their water supply yesterday morning but he remained upset over the treatment meted out to him and others from the Water & Sewerage Authority (WASA) when they sought information during the cut-off period.
He said no prior warning was given by WASA that the water supply would have been cut off in the Port-of-Spain area.
They searched WASA’s website and called the authority for information, all to no avail, he added.
Food businesses and residents went into panic mode because of the lack of information on what was happening and they endured two days of tension and stress, “especially in the city centre, where a lot of food businesses, restaurants and bakeries operate,” Aboud added.
Those businesses had water tanks but because they were not given prior warning, they did not implement a water conservation plan, he explained.
“If they got prior warning they would have contacted people contracted to supply water beforehand.
“Remember, it was not one street, it was the whole city, St James, Westmoorings and others parts of west Trinidad these contractors have to service,” he added.
Aboud said when they called WASA to find out what was happening they were told: “It have no supervisor here right now’ and “WASA servicing a pump in El Socorro and we don’t know how long that will take.”
He said they were told to call back at 7 pm for an update but when they called back none was given.
Aboud said to date he had not seen any release by WASA prior to the cut-off of water in the area.
Charging WASA with being guilty of not communicating properly with customers, he added: “What’s the use of a release if nobody sees it.”
He lamented that WASA’s communications department was not operating like it used to. Previously, it would get reliable information and updates from the authority, he said.
The authority’s head of communications, Daniel Plenty, told the T&T Guardian the water supply was returned to most of the impacted areas in Port-of-Spain during the course of Wednesday night.
He said the previous two-day water cut-off was due to “plant maintenance”, adding works went on a bit beyond the stipulated time.
Plenty said a release was issued about it.