Day 2 - Trinidad - WASA treatment facility

Feb 18 - WASA treatment facility

First real visit out to the Waste and Sewage Authority (WASA). This gave us the first real impression of the water security issues on the island. While talking to the WHO Compliance Officer at WASA, it was noted that a bit more than 50% of the population has access to water 24/7. This was quite staggering to me considering how much water was used during carnival. I suppose Port of Spain would be better suited for receiving water as it is the capital of Trinidad. Further surprises was that the tap water is 100% potable as it follows the WHO guidelines of water. I might attempt my stomach’s fate at the tap water seeing as I wouldn’t want to purchase anymore water.

Back to the WASA facility, the water level in their lake reservoir has dropped an inch since Carnival was running. This is a considerable amount seeing that this was in a southern and more remote part of Trinidad, not Port of Spain. The lessons that was learnt during their most water stressed time allowed them to manage the consumption of water more appropriately by controlling the distribution of water. This is contrary to my expectations before coming in as I thought the consumption rate was poorly manage. This does not seem to be the case as they have foresight to curb the demand so that the reservoir and aquifers still have time to replenish itself. Even if it means the population goes without water sometimes. Though, Trinidad does work on a water tank storage at every household so there is some buffer in case there is no water.

Afterwards, we visited the University of West Indies (UWI) and discussed the issues of tourism taking an impact on agriculture. As tourism increases, food for these tourists must be met and results in more production of agriculture. The catch 22 is that this could further drain the water supply even more. There should be a strategy to increase agricultural production while maintaining water security. This to me is where I’m most excited about aquaponics as a potential solution to help in water and food security. We will see tomorrow after our visit to the aquaponic station. An idea would be to increase food production with aquaponic systems to help with maintaining the water supply with the increase of tourists.

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