Even as thou­sands of gal­lons of wa­ter gushed in­to the Wood­land plains from a bro­ken main, res­i­dents of the near­by San Fran­cique com­mu­ni­ty protest­ed yes­ter­day over a month-long wa­ter prob­lem.

While the Wa­ter and Sew­er­age Au­thor­i­ty (WASA) con­tin­ues to lay a 10-inch dis­tri­b­u­tion main to im­prove sup­ply near­by, the res­i­dents say they have been suf­fer­ing, with some re­sort­ing to the rivers for wa­ter to clean and wash.

Around 10 am, res­i­dents of Salt­mine Ter­race, Seukaran Trace, Ten­ant Trace, Ram­cha­ran Trace, and Tim­i­tal Road gath­ered at Pluck Road, San Fran­cique to protest.

Res­i­dent Roland Bin­da said: “We have not had wa­ter for over a month. Peo­ple are now lean­ing on the rivers to fill the wa­ter. It is dif­fi­cult to get a sup­ply.

“We are seek­ing a wa­ter sup­ply from the riv­er, which is not healthy. Busi­ness­es are suf­fer­ing,” he said.

Shel­don Mo­hammed of Ram­cha­ran Trace said some parts of Wood­land re­ceive wa­ter, but those at the end of the Thick Boost­er net­work, in­clud­ing res­i­dents of Salt­mine Trace, Seukaran Trace, and An­tilles Trace, con­tin­ue to suf­fer.

“I do not think enough is be­ing done. We are just ask­ing for wa­ter once per week,” he said.

Mo­hammed al­so said the truck-borne sup­ply is un­re­li­able.

“You get a wa­ter re­quest num­ber, and we sit and hope. It takes up­wards of two weeks if you are lucky. Some call WASA every day for two weeks and still do not get it,” he said.

He said dis­cus­sions with the Reg­u­lat­ed In­dus­tries Com­mis­sion (RIC) sug­gest­ed a truck-borne sup­ply should ar­rive with­in three to five days, but that is not the re­al­i­ty.

“We have writ­ten to WASA, RIC, and both MPs. We have done due dili­gence, and no one seems to help us. If it goes be­yond eight days, we have prob­lems and have to buy wa­ter for $500 a truck­load,” he said.

Res­i­dents in the af­fect­ed ar­eas are rep­re­sent­ed by Oropouche West MP Dave Tan­coo, Siparia MP Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Mooni­lal.

Shirley Sookraj, an­oth­er res­i­dent, said busi­ness­es and schools are af­fect­ed. “Our preschool has to close in Wood­land. Ven­dors can­not sell. We have no taxi ser­vice, and those who pass here have in­creased fares,” Sookraj claimed.

She al­so raised con­cerns about el­der­ly and spe­cial needs res­i­dents.

She ques­tioned WASA’s com­mit­ment to its cus­tomers.

“Even if sched­ules are print­ed, they are not ho­n­oured. Where is our rem­e­dy in law? I want WASA to come and meet with us so we will know what is go­ing on,” she said.

Siparia May­or Dood­nath Mayrhoo said he raised the is­sue with WASA.

“WASA said to hold on, a line com­ing through Wood­land, and we will have re­lief in May. What are these res­i­dents sup­posed to do? Suf­fer and die while wait­ing?” he asked.

He al­so said the Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion does not have the au­thor­i­ty or re­sources to dis­trib­ute truck-borne wa­ter to WASA cus­tomers with con­nec­tions.

Tan­coo added that res­i­dents have been forced to buy wa­ter week­ly.

He said: “I sup­port the res­i­dents. Among the many in­fer­ences of Min­is­ter Gon­za­les is that these res­i­dents get wa­ter on a sev­en day cy­cle, every sev­en days. This is com­plete­ly un­true. Many res­i­dents do not see a pipe borne wa­ter sup­ply for weeks and have to buy wa­ter every week.”

$31M wa­ter sup­ply up­grade

Mean­while, Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Mar­vin Gon­za­les says Gov­ern­ment is un­der­tak­ing a $31 mil­lion wa­ter in­fra­struc­ture up­grade to ad­dress long­stand­ing sup­ply is­sues in Wood­land and San Fran­cique.

He said the cur­rent 200mm PVC pipeline serv­ing Wood­land is un­der­sized and can­not meet the area’s wa­ter trans­mis­sion needs. 

“The San Fran­cique area sim­i­lar­ly strug­gles with an in­ad­e­quate sup­ply-de­mand sce­nario, as it is al­so con­nect­ed to the Ca­roni/De­sal­cott sys­tem via the Thicke Vil­lage Boost­er and Pe­nal Wa­ter Treat­ment Plant,” he said.

To im­prove sup­ply, Gon­za­les said a 400mm pipeline is be­ing in­stalled along Pluck Road in Wood­land, and a 300mm duc­tile iron pipeline is be­ing laid along An­tilles Trace in San Fran­cique.

“This is one of the largest in­fra­struc­tur­al up­grade projects with­in the Oropouche West Con­stituen­cy,” he said. “The project in­cludes 4,500 me­ters of a 400mm main from the M2 Main Road to Ten­ant Trace and 1,900 me­ters of a 300mm main from Ten­ant Trace through An­tilles Trace in San Fran­cique.”

“These projects are cur­rent­ly un­der­way and are ex­pect­ed to be com­plet­ed by April 2025,” Gon­za­les said. “Once com­plet­ed, they will di­rect­ly ben­e­fit ap­prox­i­mate­ly 17,576 res­i­dents, im­prov­ing sup­ply from a pre­vi­ous rate of 1/7 – 1/9 to a min­i­mum of 24/2.”