THOUSANDS of residents of areas in Arouca and environs have recently benefited from an improved water supply, thanks to the newly-installed Golden Grove Booster Station, commissioned on Tuesday by Minister of Public Utilities Marvin Gonzales and Minister of Housing Camille Robinson-Regis.
The station reportedly cost $1 million and was part of other improvements to benefit 11,000 residents of Arouca and environs. It has been working for several months.
WASA deputy chairman Alston Fournillier told guests at the commissioning ceremony, "We have successfully raised the level of service from six hours, three days a week, to an impressive 12 hours, three days a week. This means that our customers are now benefiting from an extensive period of reliable supply throughout the day."
He said this station plus a new booster station at Kandahar together were helping 11,000 residents.
Project team leader Safiyyah Abdullah said the $1 million project would bring residents a better quality of life.
She said the station would receive 2.6 million gallons per day from the North Oropouche transmission system plus one million gallons from its secondary supply.
Laurel Hill resident Anna Charles said residents used to have to use pushcarts to tote water to their homes from a nearby river and a public standpipe. She said now many residents enjoy a water supply of good quality and good water pressure. She hailed the WASA team's work, saying, "We don't know what they face out there."
Robinson-Regis said beneficiaries of the new booster included residents of parts of her Arouca/Maloney constituency and Gonzales' Lopinot/Bon Air West constituency. She said it was the Government's priority to try to get a good water supply to every citizen.
Robinson-Regis said Gonzales had really put his shoulder to the wheel and done excellently for the citizenry.
However, she warned that the Caribbean faced risks of desertification and accelerated climate change, with population growth and urbanisation now worsening the "major challenge" of accessing sufficient potable water for people. Robinson-Regis said the Government could not do everything alone but needed citizens' help, such as by way of their not polluting water sources or dumping garbage to block waterways and cause flooding. She urged each person to practise water conservation, even as she was confident that under Gonzales, repairs and new facilities would improve WASA's water supply.
"The supply will increase tremendously and we are grateful for that."
Gonzales said two new wells were bringing an extra 500,000 gallons of water to the Arouca area, with another two wells due in a fortnight set to bring an additional 800,000 gallons. He said these new local wells will allow some of the water supply to this area – drawn from the North Oropouche Water Treatment Plant – to be reassigned to other areas such as Maloney and D'Abadie.
He boasted that Oropune Gardens had recently had its water supply improve from 24 hours a day for three days to 24 hours a day over seven days. This
