Communities across multiple districts of Arima, Trinidad and Tobago have been grappling with crippling water shortages for more than two weeks, sparking heated political backlash as opposition leaders and local officials accuse the national government of neglect and possible targeted retaliation.
Pennelope Beckles, Opposition Leader and Arima’s sitting Member of Parliament, made the allegations public in a Facebook statement posted on Tuesday. She emphasized that the crisis has hit hardest in Valencia West, where locals have gone without reliable running water for nearly three full weeks. Beckles noted that many residents have shared with her office growing speculation that the ongoing scarcity may stem from political victimization, pointing to a stark shift in service delivery following the April 28 general election.
“Many neighborhoods that once received consistent water access, including Pinto Road, Calvary, Santa Rosa and central Arima, now face severe, ongoing cuts,” Beckles wrote. “Even when water does reach these homes, the line pressure is so low that it is barely usable for daily needs.” She added that with the island’s water distribution network relying heavily on manual operational adjustments, residents have reported that contract “turnkey” workers have openly stated they are following directives from senior government officials to restrict service. These claims, Beckles argued, raise alarming questions about the politicization of critical public infrastructure.
Beckles also doubled down on criticism of the government’s broader management of the national water supply, questioning whether the Arima shortage is a sign of a far deeper, nationwide crisis. “Why are Arima residents facing problems they never encountered before this administration took office?” she asked. “We are tired of the government endlessly repeating talking points about past failures. It received $315 million in allocated funding specifically to upgrade the country’s water infrastructure. Where are the tangible improvements for everyday people?” She highlighted that major infrastructure overhauls were completed at the Guanapo Water Treatment Plant, but residents in Arima and East Trinidad have yet to see any noticeable boost in service reliability.
Arima Mayor Balliram Maharaj echoed Beckles’ frustrations in an interview with the Express, noting that water scarcity has been a persistent blight on the borough for decades, and reiterated his longstanding call for the construction of low-cost emergency water retention ponds to stabilize local supplies.
“Arima literally translates to ‘place of water’ in the local language, yet for years we have had the worst water access in all of Trinidad and Tobago,” Maharaj said. “Even government offices and local police stations reach out to me constantly to complain about the lack of running water.” Since taking office as mayor, Maharaj explained, he has repeatedly requested approval to develop at least five emergency retention sites, a small-scale project that he estimates would cost between $3 million and $4 million – a sum he calls fully affordable for the national government. “I am now seriously considering moving forward with building one retention pond on my own, just to prove the concept, and hoping the government will take over the broader project from there,” he added.
Maharaj also recalled multiple major fire emergencies across Arima in recent years where first responders were left without enough water to extinguish blazes, putting lives and property at extreme risk. He confirmed that according to internal plans from the State-owned Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA), the agency has proposed building 32 new retention ponds across Arima, but no progress has been made on the project to date. While Maharaj acknowledged that climate change and an unusually dry wet season have exacerbated current conditions, he called the ongoing crisis “a very sad thing” for a region whose identity is tied to water abundance.
In an official response to inquiries from the Express, WASA offered its own explanation for the shortages, pointing to record-low rainfall across the recent dry season as the primary culprit. The authority noted that the entire North East Distribution System, which serves most of Arima, relies almost exclusively on surface water sources, making it extremely vulnerable to shifts in rainfall patterns.
“Valencia West and large portions of Arima draw most of their supply from the Hollis water system,” WASA explained. “Following months of below-average rainfall, raw water reserves at the source dropped sharply, forcing us to cut production from roughly 8.5 million imperial gallons per day (IMGD) to 4.5 IMGD to stretch supplies through the dry period. This required mandatory adjustments to distribution schedules across all affected communities.”
For neighborhoods supplied by the Guanapo and Aripo water treatment plants – including Pinto Road, Santa Rosa and Calvary – WASA confirmed that service was interrupted on roughly 10 non-consecutive days in July, when heavy rainfall muddied raw water sources and clogged intake screens, disrupting treatment operations. “Both plants have now been fully restored to normal operation, and these areas are now receiving water according to our standard distribution schedules,” the agency said. “We will continue to monitor source water levels and adjust schedules as reserves improve in the coming months.”