Faced with hefty water bills despite obtaining their only water supply from rivers and ponds, scores of Moruga residents staged a fiery protest at Samuel Cooper Trace, yesterday.
In a crucial election year, they demanded an immediate meeting with their MP for Tableland/Moruga, Clifton De Coteau, who they charged had been ignoring their complaints for the past five months.
De Coteau has consented to meet with the group today. The protest, which started around 6 am at Samuel Cooper Trace, had also spread to the nearby villages of Fifth Company and St Mary’s by midday.
Children who did not go to school dragged pieces of bamboo, logs and other debris to the centre of the road, which were set ablaze. Police urged the residents to stop the protest saying the smoke was bad for the children.
Spokesperson Tanasha Cooper said the children were already in danger because they had no clean water to drink or bathe with.
“The river poisoned now because somebody throw a dead dog in the water. We suffering and we can’t take this no more. We surviving on coconut water and frost ice,” she shouted. Cooper said for the past five months, WASA had not provided a water supply. Some of the residents have a pipeborne connection but most depend on a nearby standpipe which they said was locked off by WASA last year.
Standing next to the abandoned standpipe, Cooper said WASA was trying to force her mother Yvonne Cooper to pay a $5,440 bill, even though she had not received a water supply since December.
“We begging for a connection from WASA but they telling us we have to pay this bill even though we never get water. It’s unfair,” Cooper said, as her neighbours shouted: “WASA wicked!”
Yvonne, 69, who has an amputated leg said she was using part of her pension to clear the bill because she desperately needed a pipeborne connection.
Ian Sylverton said his three-year-old son Keon could not go to school because of the water crisis.
“I cannot bathe him with river water because it scratching his skin. The water get like drain water since they throw a dead dog in there. We want the Government to come here and help us because we suffering for too long,” Sylverton added.
Natasha Dyer who works at an ice-cream parlour in San Fernando said even though the river was more than a mile away, residents had to take turns to wash in the river bank.
“We want a better life. We want a proper community centre for our children. We want running water, jobs and opportunities like everybody else. We want better houses,” Dyer said.
The residents vowed to continue their protests until they got relief.
MP, WASA respond
Contacted yesterday, De Coteau said he was sympathetic to the plight of the residents.
“The people have reached a point of frustration. No water, absolutely none,” De Coteau said. He added that he planned to meet with the residents at 9 am today to discuss their concerns.
WASA’s corporate communications officer Daniel Plenty said yesterday that a team was sent to the area. He said the village standpipe was not disconnected by WASA but had been vandalised. He said arrangements were being made to fix the standpipe so residents could obtain water.
He also said ten households which did not have a connection could visit WASA’s customer care department to apply for one. He said WASA would also investigate the pensioner’s concerns and find a solution.