Public Utilities Minister Marvin Gonzales has called for an audit into all of WASA’s water storage facilities across the country.
This follows the discovery that two of WASA’s critical water storage tanks have not been functioning for 15 years.
The audit will provide an inventory of WASA’s tanks, the cost to repair and how the water company intends to rectify the issues.
One tank, which has a ten million gallon capacity, is located at Picton Road, Laventille and could supply all of Port of Spain and parts of East Trinidad on a regular basis. The other, which can store five million gallon of water, is in Mt Hope.
Gonzales revealed to media that he found out about the defective tanks during a recent meeting with WASA’s new chairman Dr Lennox Sealy.
He said he was taken aback to learn that these two crucial tanks have not been in service for 15 years. “Whatever the problem might have been it should not have taken 15 years to rectify.”
“I have commissioned a comprehensive audit to be done on all of WASA’s water storage tanks. I have also requested that they come up with a work programme to have all their tanks that are not working reactivated to improve the water supply across the country,” he said.
Gonzales said “We know what the problems are and we are going to fix them one by one. If there is a problem with low water pressure, WASA cannot just throw their hands in the air and say they can’t be filled. The state is paying WASA workers to fix the problem.”
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