WASA diverts water supply as bush fires rage in Congo Hill, Moriah

The Wa­ter and Sew­er­age Au­thor­i­ty (WASA) says it has car­ried out a con­trolled re­lease of wa­ter from its Run­nemede Tank in To­ba­go as fire­fight­ers bat­tled bush fires in the Con­go Hill, Mo­ri­ah area.

The pre­cau­tion­ary mea­sure was tak­en on Fri­day in what WASA de­scribed as an ef­fort to pri­ori­tise pub­lic safe­ty and re­duce the risk of homes be­ing af­fect­ed in sur­round­ing com­mu­ni­ties.

The Au­thor­i­ty said the re­lease was in­tend­ed to cre­ate a fire­break and sup­port fire­fight­ing op­er­a­tions on the ground.

As a re­sult of the emer­gency ac­tion, it said sev­er­al com­mu­ni­ties will ex­pe­ri­ence in­ter­rup­tions in their wa­ter sup­ply to­day (Sat­ur­day). These in­clude High­lands Road, Des Vi­gnes Road, Run­nemede, Mo­ri­ah, and Mount Thomas.

WASA said it recog­nis­es the dis­rup­tion to res­i­dents but stressed that the de­ci­sion was nec­es­sary giv­en the de­vel­op­ing sit­u­a­tion.

“By re­leas­ing stored wa­ter to cre­ate a fire­break and sup­port fire­fight­ing ef­forts, WASA has placed safe­ty above its nor­mal ser­vice sched­ule,” the Au­thor­i­ty said.

WASA added that ser­vice restora­tion will be car­ried out in the short­est pos­si­ble time, with nor­mal sup­ply ex­pect­ed to re­sume by Mon­day, May 25, 2026.

The Au­thor­i­ty thanked res­i­dents for their un­der­stand­ing and co­op­er­a­tion dur­ing the dis­rup­tion.