Living Without Water

Trinidad and Tobago, having one of the highest levels of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita (approximately $15,038) in Latin America and the Caribbean, is thus classified as a ‘high human development’ country by the UNDP.

However, despite our economic prosperity, the UNDP reports that about 9% of our population (roughly 117,000 citizens) suffers from severe water shortages.  Ten years into the new millennium, it is still the norm to see children and adults bathing at standpipes and collecting water in various parts of the country.

In 2006, the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights declared that “the human right to water entitles everyone to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically acceptable and affordable water for personal and domestic use.”

Clean water and sanitation are among the most powerful drivers for human development. A lack of access to water and sanitation creates health risks, and affects food security, productivity and revenue generation.  The UN estimated that for some 1.1 billion people, sufficient safe acceptable, accessible and affordable water for life is a hope, not a reality, for the future.

It is clear that at the household level in Trinidad and Tobago, the lack of access to water has the greatest impact on the lives of children and women.  Most often, they are the ones responsible for collecting and carrying the water. They go without sleep to ensure that water is collected and shoulder the stresses of running households without a consistent supply of water.   Children in these vulnerable such vulnerable communities, particularly the poorest children, bear the brunt of water insecurity.  They suffer from water-borne diseases such as diarrhea and their education is affected because they frequently miss school.

Research commissioned by the World Health Organisation (WHO) indicates that sickness from water-related diseases is one of the major contributing factors to absenteeism from school in the developing world. Worldwide it has been estimated that 443 million school days are lost annually due to diarrhoeal diseases. The links between delayed mental development and water-related diseases are also well established.

Very little research has been conducted on the impact of water shortages on people’s lives in Trinidad and Tobago and it would be a valuable exercise to assess the impact on these factors on labour productivity.  However, it is clear from media reports and other informal research that water insecurity affects the quality of life and livelihood of nationals.

Tobago, with a population of just over 54,000, by all accounts seems to have ensured water accessibility (under normal weather circumstances) for almost all of its residential population.  Tobago’s success with regard to domestic users lies in its ability to use wells developed under a programme that started about two to three years ago.  However, it appears that supplying to farmers, especially during the dry season is more challenging.

Around the globe, unclean water and poor sanitation have claimed more lives than any other cause during the past century.  In the absence of statistical data, it is impossible to quantify or asses the impact of water insecurity on the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago, but it can be certain that access to water poses a crucial dilemma.

It is equally certain that, as is the case everywhere in the world, water insecurity disproportionately affects the poor. Trinidad and Tobago must recognize that access to water is a basic human right, and must make it a top priority.