Water Woes: Unplanned Desalcott shutdown

The De­sali­na­tion Com­pa­ny of Trinidad and To­ba­go (DE­SAL­COTT), was yes­ter­day in the process of as­sess­ing the full ex­tent of the dam­age due to a leak that has de­vel­oped on the fi­bre­glass clear­well sys­tem at the plant re­quir­ing emer­gency re­pairs. This issue will cause an unplanned shutdown of the plant with thousands to be affected.

WASA is ad­vis­ing cus­tomers in parts of cen­tral and south-west Trinidad served by the Point Lisas De­sali­na­tion Plant.

Affected areas includes: Ca­roni, St. He­le­na, Char­lieville, Ch­agua­nas, Cunu­pia, Cara­pichaima, Cou­va, Clax­ton Bay, Mara­bel­la, Gas­par­il­lo, San Fer­nan­do, Co­coyea, Union Hall, La Ro­maine, Wood­land, Palmiste, Phillip­ine, Ram­bert Vil­lage, South Oropouche, Fyz­abad, Av­o­cat, Siparia, Pe­nal, San Fran­cique, Rousil­lac, Aripero, La Brea.

De­sal­cott sup­plies 40 mil­lion gal­lons of wa­ter dai­ly to WASA which is used to sup­ply the Point Lisas In­dus­tri­al Es­tate, as well as aug­ment the sup­ply to ar­eas in cen­tral and south Trinidad.

WASA has put the following measures in place to help deal with the shortfall caused by the unplanned shutdown: In­creased pro­duc­tion and re-dis­tri­b­u­tion of sup­ply from the Ca­roni and Navet Wa­ter Treat­ment Plants; Im­ple­men­ta­tion of ad­just­ed sup­ply sched­ules; In­creased wa­ter truck­ing ca­pac­i­ty; Spe­cial em­pha­sis and arrange­ments to sup­ply schools, health in­sti­tu­tions, homes for aged and oth­er spe­cial needs or­gan­i­sa­tions.