A 70-year-old man and his wife have resorted to eating at restaurants each night, frequently showering at friends’ homes or even by the sea, all because they don’t receive pipe-borne water for weeks or months at a time.
The couple can’t even wash their clothes regularly because of the problem affecting their home at Ariapita Road, St Ann’s.
It’s a situation felt across the district on-and-off for about two to three years, in areas like Chancellor, upper Ariapita Road, St Ann’s, Hololo and Cascade.
The resident, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, is a retired New York art director who returned home ten years ago but is now fed up he can’t benefit from a basic paid utility, such as water.
It’s been ongoing for years, he said, but since the start of the year the situation intensified.
“Even when there is a lot of rain there is a water problem. The reservoirs are over flowing and St Ann’s still has a water problem. We get sometimes once a month or twice a month. This time we’re already going on three weeks without water.”
Each time a resident calls WASA, he said, they were met with a different response or reason for the inconsistency.
Further up St Ann’s, where the palatial homes toweringly latch onto the hillside, residents of Plaisance Development have consistently had no pipe-borne water since February.
Land developer and resident, Patrick Hamel-Smith. told the T&T Guardian the situation was unbearable.
“Dirty clothes are backed up and it causes a lot of stress. We have to buy water weekly for drinking and cooking because what we get from the trucks we keep for flushing toilets and washing.”
He said the truck supply could be reliable but it was highly inconvenient.
“For this year so far we’ve ordered over 15 times. I buy three five-gallon bottles of drinking water every two weeks or so for my family of five. It’s costly,” he added.
Another neighbour said he could not wait on the truck supply and sometimes paid for a supply once or twice a month.
That could cost his household $1,200 each trip and lasted two days with washing or one week without washing, if they really tried to stretch it, he added.
Health worker and resident of Upper Cascade, Tricia Cummings, said: "It is unfair to us when you are expecting to get water and it doesn't come. There are many professionals living in the area and it is frustrating when people go to work all day and can't shower, cook or use the toilet when they get home at night."
The mother of four is a nurse attached to the St Ann's Hospital and she said the situation was similar at work.
“We have nurses toting water and we sometimes ask psychiatric and mentally disturbed patients to come and help tote water to bathe and clean other patients. Things there cannot be done without water. It is the largest mental hospital in the Caribbean region and we have 27 wards with more than 80 patients a ward."
In the low-income areas, like Upper Ariapita Road, the situation was the same.
A 68-year-old woman, whose 86-year-old mother is bed-ridden, said she had been forced to use grocery bags inside the commode in order for her mother to defecate in as they had no water to flush the toilet.
Councillor for the area, Sherwyn Jones, told the T&T Guardian he has been flooded with calls from people across his district for at least a year.
“Well over 4,000 people are affected by this situation, and even certain parts of Belmont, like Durant and Upper Belmont Valley Road, as well.”
He said he had been in correspondence with WASA and only Tuesday he spoke to a representative.
“I was told everything supposed to be okay and normal but the reality is that what he is saying and what people are experiencing are two different things entirely,” he added.
The problem is not discriminatory of class or race, Jones pointed out that throughout the district, “like Cascade where you may find more upper and middle class, and the areas of the lower class as well are all affected.”
An elderly resident said the problems began several years ago when the water supply, which had been coming from the Cascade Spring, was stopped.
"Cascade always had water because of that spring but we began having problems after they stopped taking water from there.
“People used to go above the filter bed and bathe and those down below were told that it was not sanitary to drink that water and people complained about what they were doing but it has not stopped.”
She appealed to WASA: "If you decide to give us water, send it at least during the night so people can do what they need to do in the house and make sure it lasts long enough to enable home-owners to complete their work."
WASA constrained
MP for Port-of-Spain North/St Ann's West, Stuart Young said: "From time-to-time, I have been made aware of irregular water supplies in areas of my constituency, including Cascade and St Ann's.
‘On each occasion, I communicate directly with WASA and attempt to have the situation rectified. WASA has been under strain firstly, with inadequate water supplies during the dry season and recently, WASA has had some issues with their equipment, including pumps and wells.
"There does not appear to be any quick and simple solution but I certainly have been doing as much as is possible whenever I am informed that constituents have been suffering from inadequate supplies of water to provide them with relief.
‘WASA has been working with me and other MPs to try and alleviate the difficulties associated with inadequate water supply."
Contacted on the issue, WASA's corporate communications manager Daniel Plenty said the authority would address the residents’ concern.