Part One – The Forgotten Village of Cumaca: Left Dry

For years, residents of Cumaca Village, Valencia, lived without a pipe borne supply of water.

Those in the quiet, rural community had grown used to hauling water by hand or in their vehicles to their homes.

Whenever it rained, the community celebrated as their tanks and barrels would be filled without the back-breaking labour of carrying buckets and bottles of water.

Everything would change about 15 years ago, when they were told a pipe-borne supply was finally being brought into the community.

The residents say Water and Sewage Authority (WASA) officials told them to prepare stand pipes outside their homes in order to be connected to the main line. 

Those who applied spent weeks installing plumbing in their homes.

Seeing water flow in their new taps was a cause for celebration. 

Father of three Tony Nelson remembers that day vividly.

“I feel happy…the day I see water coming through the pipe, I say ‘What! Niceness!’”

But that “niceness” did not last long.

Nelson says he got water in the line twice during the day in those first weeks.

Then, the schedule changed and the supply started to come once a week at 3 am. 

“You have to get up now to full your water, I didn’t mind. Sometimes it reaching (on the hill), sometimes it not reaching, you have to go quite down the hill and take bucket and tote it up, I was still satisfied with it, because I getting the lil’ water,” Nelson said. 

Weeks later, the supply was cut. It has not been restored since. 

The PVC lines, once painstakingly installed, have now rotted.

About 30 homes were left without a supply.

When News 19 TT visited the community on August 8, none of the residents we spoke to were able to say why the supply was cut.

As the years went on, they would try, through various channels, to have the supply reconnected.

Lisa D’Andrede recalls rallying residents to sign a letter that she took to WASA’s head office, where she was working at the time as a security guard.

“I did up the letter and walked around the village getting everyone to sign it, I can’t remember now but I think it was maybe twice I carry in letters,” she said. 

But those letters got no response.

Requests for a truck borne supply were sometimes fulfilled, until the trucks stopped coming. With the community’s steep hills and deep valleys, the residents say water hoses often could not reach their homes. 

The residents admitted that after some time, they stopped paying their WASA bills.

“I not getting any service, so what would I pay that bill for?” D’Andrede asked.

“I have so many other commitments, I have electricity bill to pay, children to send to school, why I paying for something I not receiving?”

Zephrin Alfonso-James moved to Cumaca with his family about nine years ago. 

He moved into a home that was previously occupied by his wife’s elderly aunt and her husband.

“They moved out because of the same water issue, they were too old to carry water up the hill for their little garden and to use, so they left,” Alfonso-James said. 

Along with the property, Alfonso-James also got a $2800 outstanding water bill.

“I took the bill and went to WASA to pay it off. While I was by the counter, trying to pay this bill, the staff were hurling insults at me, saying, ‘This is one of dem from Cumaca who doh pay their bill.’

“I say, ‘Hold on, I now move to this community, I trying to make things right.’”

With the bill settled, Alfonso-James returned home and waited for his supply to be turned on.

About six months later, after multiple requests, he got one truckload of water delivered to his home.

“It took us six months to get one truckborne water, which came Damn Fool Day (April 1), we never forgot it because my wife does remind me about it and say that I was fool to pay the bill because they send it on that day.”

He has not paid another bill since.

Nelson says last year, he met some WASA employees in another area of Valencia and voiced his concerns about a lack of a supply.

“They take my phone number and a few weeks later, I start seeing them sending bills to my phone,” Nelson said. 

He, too, has not paid his bill.

Albert Paponette, who has lived in Cumaca for most of his 75 years, says years of carrying buckets of spring water has taken its toll on his body. 

“I go nine miles inside (Cumaca) to reach the spring, full up buckets, plastic bottles, bags with water for my family to use,” Paponette said. 

“My back giving me real pressure now.”

Paponette says while he intends to live many more years, he does not know how much longer he can haul water to his home. 

His request is the same as his neighbours: a return of their pipeborne supply. 

Alfonso-James says if the supply is restored, residents will happily pay their bills.

“It’s more revenue for you, WASA,” he said. 

While they wait for someone to hear their cries, the residents say Cumaca has suffered years of neglect. 

In Part 2 of the Forgotten Village of Cumaca, these residents share the struggles of living in a community that they believe has been forgotten.