The Opposition United National Congress filed a motion in the Parliament on Friday, to raise the urgent need for the Government to take immediate action to provide essential long term and short term relief and assistance to citizens who have been without water for the past few weeks and months throughout Trinidad and Tobago.
However, the motion was rejected by the Speaker of the House.
According to the UNC, House Speaker Bridgid Annisette-George deemed that the matter of hundreds of thousands of citizens going without pipe borne water for weeks was not urgent and or important enough to warrant a debate inside the Parliament.
The party, via a release, said, “Citizens continue to struggle to do daily activities such as cooking, cleaning and washing without the water they are required to pay for, and which rates the Government intends to increase.”
They said the Speaker of the House has once again assisted the PNM Government in ignoring the issues that affect the hard working citizens of the country, oppressed by PNM corruption and incompetence.
The UNC said, “We remind this Government that they inherited a highly functional water distribution system in 2015 which was responsible for delivering water to over 70% of the population on a 24 hour basis.”
“In just 8 years, this has now been reduced to empty promises and dry taps.
However, in June 2022, Minister Gonzales claimed that 70% of the population can expect a 24/7 water supply within six months. Over one year has passed and we are only seeing the problem worsening for thousands of our citizens throughout the country.”
The UNC is again calling on the Government and the Minister of Public Utilities to stop playing water politics with people’s lives.