WASA condemns vandalism at Penal wells

The Wa­ter and Sew­er­age Au­thor­i­ty (WASA) has re­port­ed two in­ci­dents of van­dal­ism at Pe­nal Wells #17 and #18 in South-West Trinidad.

The in­ci­dents oc­curred on Feb­ru­ary 24 and March 16. Elec­tri­cal ca­bles were cut and Trinidad and To­ba­go Elec­tric­i­ty Com­mis­sion (T&TEC) me­ters were stolen. WASA said the acts dis­rupt­ed op­er­a­tions.

The in­ci­dents re­sult­ed in pro­duc­tion loss­es of 0.12 mil­lion gal­lons per day in Feb­ru­ary and 0.14 mil­lion gal­lons per day in March. WASA said re­pair costs are es­ti­mat­ed at more than $23,000.

Chief Ex­ec­u­tive Of­fi­cer Dain Ma­haraj con­demned the in­ci­dents and is­sued a warn­ing.

“These acts of van­dal­ism are com­plete­ly un­ac­cept­able and will not be tol­er­at­ed. They rep­re­sent a di­rect at­tack on crit­i­cal na­tion­al in­fra­struc­ture and place a fi­nan­cial bur­den on the Au­thor­i­ty. This be­hav­iour must stop. We are call­ing on mem­bers of the pub­lic to re­port any sus­pi­cious ac­tiv­i­ty so that to­geth­er we can pro­tect these fa­cil­i­ties and hold those re­spon­si­ble ac­count­able,” CEO Ma­haraj said.

WASA said van­dal­ism of pub­lic prop­er­ty is a crim­i­nal of­fence un­der the Sum­ma­ry Of­fences Act and the Ma­li­cious Dam­age Act. The Au­thor­i­ty said per­sons found guilty are li­able to fines and im­pris­on­ment.

WASA urged cit­i­zens to re­spect pub­lic in­fra­struc­ture. The Au­thor­i­ty said it is work­ing with rel­e­vant agen­cies to ad­dress the in­ci­dents and pre­vent fur­ther acts.

Mem­bers of the pub­lic can re­port sus­pi­cious ac­tiv­i­ty to the WASA Van­dal­ism Hot­line at 496-6738.