AS MANY citizens have started to realise, heavy rains do not necessarily equate to a better water supply.

TT once again faced the wrath of flooding between Wednesday and Thursday, and thousands were also left without pipe-borne water after surface-water treatment plants started shutting down, particularly in the north, east and in Tobago.

Increasingly often, communities which receive pipe-borne water from treatment plants fed by surface water, especially rivers, are left with flooded yards and dry taps after a few hours of heavy rain.

Intakes at water-treatment plants become clogged when rising river levels increase turbidity (measurement of silt and other debris in water from a river or lake) and can only be cleared when the levels subside.

The Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) hosted a news conference just after midday on Thursday, at which time the worst of the day's weather seemed to have passed.

The authority's chairman, Ravindra Nanga, and acting director of operations, Shaira Ali, gave updates on the affected plants and the communities they service.

Ali said the weather earlier on Thursday presented "significant challenges at the authority with respect to the surface-source treatment facilities."

In other instances, conditions were improving and WASA was able to restart several plants.

Nanga and Ali expressed optimism about the restoration of service to most of the affected areas within 24 hours if the weather allowed for it.

On November 5, WASA also announced that its Tompire water-treatment plant in north-east Trinidad was similarly affected by high turbidity levels which resulted in clogged screens which left the plant inoperable.

However, while the TT Meteorological Service lowered the severity of its riverine alert from orange to yellow on Thursday afternoon, it also forecast a medium (60 per cent) chance of thunderstorm activity between Thursday afternoon and night, which could affect WASA's ability to have the treatment plants up and running and water restored on Friday.

Ali said there were a handful of other issues affecting the water supply to some communities.

"Yesterday (Wednesday) we encountered two breaks on the 42-inch transmission main (at Daniel Trace and Pine Settlement, Valencia) that supplies water from the plant to several of the off takes which supply the communities."

Ali said crews were immediately mobilised to both sites and had been working intensely overnight.

He said because of "the challenges with the weather system, the high levels of rainfall and the river conditions," WASA was "able to mobilise works last night. Crews were working (continuously) with the weather conditions as they were."

A crew remains at Daniel Trace where there were several challenges, particularly the terrain, being in a forested area, as well as at Pine Settlement where restoration was hampered on Thursday by the high river levels.

But, Ali said, "We have equipment mobilised. We have