$2.5 B ANNUAL SUBVENTIONS — AND STILL WATER WOES

THE problem-plagued Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) costs taxpayers more than $2.5 billion each year – and still, consumers cannot get an efficient supply, even during the rainy season.

In the past decade alone, subventions to WASA have set back nationals more money than the respective annual budgets of some Caricom territories.

After years of wastage, mismanagement, and inefficiency, the government belatedly came up with a restructuring plan in 2019, promising to make the agency lean and productive.

A study uncovered that WASA was overstaffed by 2,500 workers, 40 per cent of its water drained out in pipeline leaks, and there were gross irregularities in the awarding of contracts.

There were 231 more managers than needed.

The utility company has eight levels of leadership.

The reform has not taken place, quite possibly because of the absence of political will since WASA has long been considered a PNM sleeper cell.

For decades, the State-owned enterprise has been a sanctuary of political patronage, squandermania and managerial incompetence.

There have not been any measurable recent efforts to harvest more water through exploration and development.

So on an average day, tens of thousands in this twin-island state are without a pipe-borne supply of the precious commodity.

The crisis appeared more evident last week because about 250,000 urban residents, commercial and industrial customers went waterless for three straight days.

That disruption in supply – caused by a ruptured pipeline – took place during the $20 million Caricom anniversary spectacle, attended by regional and international hotshots.

Even while his land was enduring this emergency, Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley adopted the lofty persona of Patrick Manning in 2009, when the latter hosted two international conferences even as Trinidad and Tobago was falling apart.

Manning was booted from national office mere months later.

As aloof as ever, Rowley walked tall last week amid multi-fold crises in a traumatised land.

The crime epidemic is compounded by prevalent poverty and hardship caused by high unemployment, a virtual wage freeze, runaway inflation, and steep food and medicine prices.

While Rowley and his Caricom cronies were backslapping each other, it took Antony Blinken, Secretary of State of the United States, to speak truth to power.

“One in two people in the Caribbean cannot afford a healthy diet,” Blinken told the conference.

You would not have discerned that crisis from the celebratory tone of the conference and the drivel of bumbling new Caricom Chairman Dominica’s Roosevelt Skerrit.

The vacuous conference last left the region as unfulfilled as barren lovers after a one-night stand.

There were no attempts to address the raging regional catastrophes, including the absence of meaningful efforts to grow food, expand their economies, and modernise their societies.

The region remains a financial basket case and is now relishing handouts as the US and China battle for geopolitical space.

As for Rowley’s T&T, it remains lagging on most of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Last week proved that his administration cannot deliver even on the most basic objective – clean water.

Fifty years after the launch of Caricom – and 61 years after political independence – Trinidad and Tobago is still at the starting gates.