Commentary
Debbie Jacob
DEBBIE JACOB
DOES WASA ever consider how frustrating and demoralising it is? WASA’s not just an acronym for a wishy-washy utility company to hide behind. It’s a public service with people who don’t seem to care how they anger, depress or enrage people. At least that is how it feels to me in the 42 years I have lived here.
Every day I wake up thinking of ways to make this country better. I value being efficient and working hard to be happy, despite all our problems. Then, I step into my yard, look towards the street and see a steady stream of water running downhill. That puts a damper on my day.
Leaking water is a familiar sight on my road. For the better part of 36 years of living in this house, I have spent hours on the phone listening to WASA’s hypocritical public service messages about not wasting water.
In recent years, the procedure for reporting leaks has improved, though I haven’t had success with online reporting.
WASA’s telephone hotline service is better. Most of the time, it’s possible to reach operators. They’re polite, and they promise to expedite reports.
But it takes months for WASA workers to fix a leak. For the last three months, I’ve reported a steady stream of water running down my street. WASA says an engineer came to see this leak, which I last reported on October 12, but no one has come to fix it as of November 4.
These leaks are so bad and so persistent that they have carved a path through the road, making it look like my street is forming its own stream. I thought irregular water supplies and scheduled water were the worst emotional damage WASA could do, until my street experienced these constant leaks.
Everywhere I’ve lived has had continuous water problems. My water woes started in a cane field in Warrenville, where we had no pipe-borne water. We used water from a standpipe to cook with and bathe. But pipes wouldn’t have helped much. Houses along the main road with water connections rarely had water.
Water problems followed me to Caroni, where I woke up at 2 o’clock every morning to collect dripping water until about 6 am. Irregular water supplies frustrated me in Carenage, Goodwood Park and Cascade, so I can only imagine how bad it is in remote areas of Trinidad and Tobago.
But this column isn’t just about frustration and anger. It’s about a nation drowning in apathy. We’re all bound to WASA’s poor service. We all see WASA wasting water. WASA could inspire people to be frugal, productive and environmentally conscious. Instead, it leaves us demoralised, apathetic, cynical and passive. Many people can’t muster the energy to be bothered with this nation’s problems. It would help if government entities like WASA could show it cares about people.
That’s hard to feel when I drive down the road and dodge annoying holes in the road filled with shifting gravel after WASA repairs.
Why can’t WASA co-ordinate with the Ministry of Works or fix the roads WASA messes up? Why is there no collaboration in this country?
WASA’s nonchalance is a problem that spills over into other government and private sector entities. The country feels disorganised. Government ministries seem to be on a perpetual go-slow. This is frustrating and demoralising.
The bottom line is we don’t have water to waste. In the end, we are all punished by WASA’s wastage. Sadly, when it comes to water, nothing has changed in my 43 years in Trinidad. Change may be impossible because WASA’s inefficiency was introduced from day one. There’s no proper infrastructure to fix those patchwork pipes laid originally without a proper plan.
Too many people desperate for water and fed up with waiting for WASA laid their own pipes long ago. WASA once told me the water pipes on my street were not theirs after I reported a leak. It claimed that I had to hire a backhoe to dig up my street and fix the connection to the main. WASA only caved and fixed the leak when I protested and reminded them I pay for water.
WASA probably can’t do much of anything to solve our problems in the long run. All I’m asking is for leaks to be fixed promptly. Give us hope that we’re all working towards a more productive country. We don’t want to see our dreams of an efficient and caring country washed down the drain.
