DENYING they are playing "water politics" when there is a real water crisis in the country, Opposition members say the situation has reached to the point where it is now affecting the country's revenue stream.
Newly elected chairman of the Couva, Tabaquite, Talparo Regional Corporation chairman Ryan Rampersad, said the water crisis was affecting commerce in his area which is home to the Point Lisas Industrial Estate.
Rampersad said many businesses on the Plipdeco estate and in the Couva districts had indicated plans to shut down temporarily if the water problems persist.
Already, he said, the Aquatic Centre has been closed, pointing out the facility was used by athletes from cold climates who came to TT to train.
He said it was a source of not only revenue, but foreign exchange that is being lost.
Rampersad said CTTRC was home to 178,000 people who were without water. Even though some people were willing to pay between $800 top $1,000 for a tank of water, they could not get it as poor infrastructure prevented access to their homes.
Five opposition MP's along with chairmen and mayors of the seven UNC-controlled Regional Corporations held a news conference on Tuesday afternoon, to address the water crisis, mainly in central and south Trinidad.
Couva South MP Rudy Indarsinghj said people, mainly in the UNC-represented constituencies, had reached frustration levels to the extent that he predicted future water riots, the likes of which were seen back in 1903.
Siparia Borough mayor Doodnath Mayrhoo who has become well-known for leading protest action, promised if the situation was not rectified by the end of this week, he would be taking the "fire" to Port of Spain, 'to raise the temperature.'
Public Utilities Minister Marvin Gonzales did not respond to a telephone call or a text message on Tuesday, but in an earlier interview said an electrical problem which caused the shutdown of the desalination plant and water woes for over 250,000 residents, would have been resolved.
He said the plant was 90 per cent operational and within the next 24 to 48 hours there should be some normalcy in supply. He said water would have returned to some affected areas.
At the UNC's media conference, Princes Town MP Barry Padarath said water had not been restored to any of the opposition-controlled constituencies.
All opposition members agreed with Padarath that the "dry-tap syndrome" in UNC constituencies, was not new and did not start with the desalination plant shutdown over the weekend, but had been a perennial problem under the PNM administration.
Padarath said while the PNM had held political power longer than any other administration, it was under the Basdeo Panday and Kamla Persad-Bissessar administrations that TT experienced a 70 per cent water supply. He claimed supply was currently at 16 per cent.
He blamed a lack of vision, incompetence, and poor planning, while insisting that the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) was being deliberately under resourced to justify Government's planned restructurin
