A senior team of officials from the Water and Sewerage Authority (the Authority) led by acting Chief Executive Officer, Sherland Sheppard, met with Member of Parliament for Couva South, the Hon. Rudranath Indarsingh, along with Local Government representatives and residents of the Couva South constituency, at the Authority’s Head Office, St. Joseph today Thursday 3rd March 2022. The meeting was held to discuss the water supply schedules and other issues affecting customers in parts of the Couva South constituency.
At the meeting, Head – Operations South, Anand Jaggernath, presented details on the current source of supply, production capacity and distribution system which services various communities within the Couva South constituency. He also outlined the existing challenge in maintaining balance between the supply and demand for water in the area, which led to the implementation of the current 1 in 9 schedule. Production at the Freeport Water Treatment Plant is 2.6 million gallons per day (mgd), while the demand for the area is estimated at 3.5 mgd. As a result water from the Caroni Water Treatment Plant is used to supplement the supply from the Freeport Plant. Consequently, reduced production at the Caroni facility due to the effects of the Dry Season, has impacted this supplemental supply.
Notwithstanding these challenges, the Authority outlined several measures already in train and plans that will bolster the supply from the Freeport plant, leading to an improved service to customers in the area. Some of these measures include the completion of rehabilitation works on two wells at the Freeport Plant by the end of March 2022, which will increase production to just over 3 mgd. This will lead to an improvement in the schedules to the area from 1 in 9 days to minimum 1 – 2 days per week. The Authority also identified that it was working on gaining access to another Well #6, which when rehabilitated will further boost the amount of water available for distribution to areas in the Couva South constituency. Apart from these measures, the Authority highlighted two pipeline projects currently awaiting funding that will deliver an increased volume of water to the area from the Caroni system.
The meeting, which was cordial and productive, ending with acting CEO Sheppard giving an undertaking to MP Indarsingh and his delegation that the Authority will continue to press ahead with the ongoing and planned works, aimed at improving the levels of service to customers throughout the Couva South constituency. He also underscored that all lines of communication are open to him, as well as members of the WASA team, to ensure that their issues are dealt with expeditiously.