MINISTER of Public Utilities Marvin Gonzales has called on international lending partners such as the Andean Investment Bank (IDB), the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF) and the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and the World Bank to streamline their processes so that facilities for water supply projects could be accessed faster.

He said in the midst of climate change, which is rapidly depleting the region’s supply of water, all stakeholders, including the government and international lending partners have to operate with urgency to secure water supplies in the region.

“We need to act with urgency. I implore you, our international lending partners, CAF, IDB, CDB, and the World Bank, that they need to look at their processes to ensure that while we are prepared to partner with them that their internal processes reflect the urgency (of the situation) that we are in.

“We are in a crisis and that process is not responding as if we are in a crisis. While we are willing to continue to working with you – we are not asking for free money, we are going to pay it back – we are asking that you ensure that your processes are in a way that we can get access to the resources and put the necessary systems in place, so we can serve our population and prevent them from a major crisis knocking at our door.”

Gonzales was speaking at the opening ceremony of the Annual Caribbean Water and Wastewater Association conference and exhibition, at the Hyatt Regency, Port of Spain on October 21.

Gonzales described his experience in seeking financial support for the construction of WASA’s operational control centre, complaining that during the process, he had to go through 50 layers of approvals and still was only able to access $80 million for the project.

“I cannot understand for the life of me why at every stage you have to go to Washington to go to the next stage,” he said.

Gonzales said the government was able to increase the percentage of the population with access to a 24/7 supply water by 30 per cent, but extreme heat, one of the major effects of climate change, is undermining government’s efforts to provide a consistent supply of water for all.

“We had the northwest water improvement programme, the strategic action plan to improve the supply of water, the national transformation plan to improve the supply of water,” he said.

“Communities that are un-served and underserved are now getting access to a supply of water. In 2022 only 31 per cent of the population in TT had access to a 24-hour supply of water. Now because of those projects and those programmes that we have accessed over the years, today, 61 per cent of TT has access to 24/7 supply of water.”

“We have de-silted some of our reservoirs, we have constructed booster stations, we drilled wells to increase water production by over 3.2 million gallons of water. Then, something that we have absolutely no control over, climate change, came along.”

[caption id="attachment_1116412" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Low water levels at the Hollis Reservoir in 2