THE EDITOR: In 1977 Lord Kitchener sang a calypso called The Water Cry.

That was 44 years ago. Yet, according to the report of the Cabinet sub-committee appointed to review the operations of the Water and Sewerage Authority to determine a strategy for enabling it to achieve its mandate, published on December 11, 2020, the politicians signing the report had the brass face to state:

'WASA's intractable issues have manifested itself in the form of operational and service failures where hundreds of thousands of citizens are unable to get either a reasonable supply of water or a suitable and timely response to their plight.'

Oh jeez! Forty-four years after that calypso was sung and 56 years after WASA was established, in the report's own words, 'WASA's production [in 2019-2020] averaged 218 IMGD (imperial million gallons a day) of water, while domestic and non-domestic demand is estimated at 155.4 IMGD.'

Non-revenue water (NRW), consisting of water lost through leaks and theft, is estimated within the range of 40-50 per cent (87.2-109 IMGD). The supply deficit in the dry season is 79 IMGD and the annual average deficit is 24 IMGD.'

As if we the consumers didn't know that we suffer for a continuous supply. Hear the report again:

'WASA's executives are not held to account, deploy very limited controls, are not effectively regulated, apply very antiquated, technology-deficient systems, and are generally devoid of an understanding of WASA's role, relationship and the consequences of the utility's actions on the national population. This problem cascades down from the executives to the rest of the organisation,'

So in the opinion of those who signed the report, all of whom are politicians, the problem is WASA's executives who are not held to account. So who should hold the executives to account? The WASA board, you may answer. But who appoints, disappoints and reappoints the board and have been doing so for more than 50 years? The problem does not cascade down from the executives. It cascades down from the politicians.

But unlike the magistrate who tried himself in Spoiler's calypso, we do not expect our politicians to try themselves for gross negligence and massive squandermania of public funds.

GERRY KANGALEE

Rambert Village

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