Tank Farms And Desalination Plants To Bring Water Relief Across T&T #TTTLiveOnline

Speaking at Thursday’s Post Cabinet Media Briefing, he announced relief for constituencies soon, including emergency tank farms, millions in infrastructure upgrades, and new desalination plants.

He singled out Siparia as the most underserved area in the country, saying the constituency has suffered at least two decades of inadequate supply.

He said Cabinet agreed to implement short-term measures to remedy the situation, including a pilot project using community tank farms.

“Utilising the data from WASA, having established these four tank farms over the last two months, we have moved from four water wagons in the constituency of Siparia to now 18. And therefore, with the tank farms being resident in these communities, what it then allows for is a greater turnover in terms of delivery to persons in communities that traditionally would have suffered weeks on end.”

He revealed that Cabinet has now approved the expansion of that model to other hard-hit areas.

“So far, four have been identified for Moruga/Tableland. Mayaro, two have been identified for them, and Cumuto/Manzanilla, two have been identified in that constituency as well. For the construction of these tank farms and operational costing, we are looking at $7.5 million in terms of investing in establishing these tank farms.”

He noted that the locations have already been identified, and WASA is at the stage of procurement.

The Minister chastised previous administrations for failing to complete critical projects along the East West Corridor.

“While it will be resident in the constituency which is now Arouca/Maloney, formerly Bon Air/West, what you would see happening is that there will be a greater supply of water through the Bon Air/West Treatment Plant.”

A major upgrade is also underway for the Freeport Water Treatment Plant.

“This upgrade of the Freeport Water Treatment Plant will be at an estimated tune of about $20 million. WASA will be going through the procurement phase, but in terms of the first phase of the Water Treatment Plant in Freeport, this will impact several constituencies.”

He reminded that the government is also moving towards desalination as a permanent solution, with three new plants planned for Tobago and South Trinidad.

“That will alleviate a lot of the problems in the southern part of the island. That will give us a long-term relief in terms of a 24-7 supply in many instances, or at least a 24-hour supply every four days.”

Minister Padarath also addressed ongoing water complaints in Diego Martin North/East, accusing past Ministers of failing to act.