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nervewrecker wrote:REVO wrote:The Desal plant produces approx. 32iMGD of water daily(soon to be 40iMGD), half of which is utilized within the Point Lisas Estate. Where the rest goes? Yes onto the system which consist of domestic and commercial customers, not to mention through uncontrolled orifices(leaks). Is WASA only paying for what Point Lisas uses? No, they pay for 32iMGD. So it is ah buss financially for WASA. The positive is that it benefits to the citizens. I could live with that. However WASA, I am sure would have to find a way to offset that cost in the future. Perhaps by means of domestic metering and high rates.
Is recycling water to send to Point Lisas financially viable from Beetham? The distance(about 35km) from POS to Point Lisas with the creation of new pipe routes is expensive. Long ago WASA recycled water from the South Waste Water Treatment Plant and sent it to Point Lisas. WASA is about to spend over a billion dollars in revamping the sewer system throughout Trinidad and Tobago with the refurbishment of the San Fernando Waste water treatment plant. Why can't the designers design this plant to recycle water to send to Point Lisas? Wouldn't this be cheaper? Shorter distance(about 16km) and established pipe route.
In my view if we were to recycle water from Beetham Waste water we should condemn the current dump and open an industrial park or commercial centre and use the water there. Developing the land and recycling water might cost over one billion dollars...but what the heck more value for money.
WASA buys what DESAL produces and sells back half to the Industrial Estate for a profit. Without DESAL that amount of water would have been siphoned out of the distribution system short changing recipients.
The pipeline from BWWTP is a one time thing provided its sized properly and if im not mistaken BWWTP produces more than SfdoWTP. In fact the effluent volume just so coincides with the Industrial estate demand.
Something to consider:
Not everything from the influent stream BWWTP activated sludge process can remove as it receives water from the Fernandez Industrial Estate among other places. BWWTP effluent stream empties into the same water body as DESAL influent stream. Isolating BWWTP effluent from DESAL influent as well as reducing the level of pollution in the Gulf of Paria will cut down DESAL treatment costs and downtime for maintenance.
Caroni is WASA's next raw water source and anyone seen that river can tell the water is of horrid quality. Reducing pollution along its body will reduce treatment costs and the burden on tax payers pockets.
Trinidad and Tobago is a water rich country yet starved for potable water. Meanwhile other countries with very little reserves dont have thins problem because they manage their reserves properly.
SIS outsources work on $1.6bn Beetham Water Recycling Project
Renuka Singh
Published:
Sunday, September 21, 2014

Super Industrial Services Ltd (SISL) is now seeking to outsource the construction work on the $1.6 billion Beetham Water Recycling Project. A confidential tender document, obtained by the Sunday Guardian, showed the Couva-based SISL was seeking to retain other companies to begin the hefty project. The bid documents carry a deadline date of September 5, 2014, for all submissions.
The contentious project has started even as the Opposition People’s National Movement (PNM) has called for a Commission of Enquiry (CoE) into the project and its award to SISL. The Joint Consultative Committee also called for the project to be halted.
The project was awarded to SISL on February 28, just before the long Carnival weekend.
In the seven-page Instruction to Bid document, SISL detailed a ten-point scope of works which included everything from a bulk chemical storage area to external works and landscaping. While questions have been raised about SISL’s ability to handle the range and scope of the massive project, new information reveals that SISL is currently seeking to outsource the contract, becoming instead the project manager for the $1.6 billion project.
“In accordance with its contract with the National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago (NGC), SISL is required to design and build a water recycling facility adjacent to the existing Beetham Waste Water Treatment Plant (BWWTP), together with the associated pipelines and water storage facilities,” the bid contract stated. The contract also noted that the requisite works is expected to cross three major roads on central Trinidad and two rivers, the Caroni and the Guayamere.
“It has been specified by NGC that the pipeline be laid underground which will require HDD (Horizontal Directional Drilling) at the major water crossings,” the document stated. According to the Instruction to Bidders, the sub-contractors must respond within two days of the delivery of the bid documents. “No subletting of work is authorised,” it states.
The document is also prefaced with a strict confidentiality clause which debars the hired contractor from making any “statements to the media” or “disclosing any information to any unauthorised person(s) whether on or off duty, during or long after their period of assignment to the BWWRP facilities.”
When the PNM had called for the project to be halted, Opposition leader Dr Keith Rowley wrote to President Anthony Carmona on March 10, 2014, asking him to use his authority to “investigate and call upon” Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar to explain the circumstances and award by the National Gas Company/WASA of a contract for the Design and Build, Operation and Maintenance of the Beetham Water Recycling Plant together with the associated pipelines and water storage facilities to SISL.
The Sunday Guardian e-mailed SISL’s project manager Joachim Reinert and one of the South-based companies listed on the bid documents. There was no response. The Sunday Guardian also texted and called Energy Minister Kevin Ramnarine for further clarification on the project, but he did not respond.
Finance Minister Larry Howai referred to the billion-dollar project briefly during the reading of the 2014/2015 budget earlier this month. He said then that work was “being vigorously pursued on establishing a daily supply of water for all our citizens.” Howai said, “With the completion of the Beetham Waste Water Project, the Industrial Estate at Point Lisas will benefit from a reliable and high quality water supply, thereby diverting ten million gallons per day of good-quality potable water to the national community.”
About SISL
The company was founded by businessman Krishna Lalla and has been linked to the United National Congress (UNC), often being described as a party financier.
The company was awarded the contract despite being almost $400 million more than that of its nearest competitor. SISL also beat out more seasoned international companies including Vinci Construction, Kentz Caribbean and Latin America, GLF Construction, Technologica Intercontinental, Aqualia Infrastructuras, Societe Generale Des Eaux, Doshion Private Ltd, Universal Projects Ltd, Seven Seas Water (Trinidad), AST Clean Water Technology, Earth Company Ltd and GE Water.
PNM calls for CoE
PNM chairman Franklin Khan and the party’s public relations officer Faris Al Rawi yesterday reiterated Rowley’s call for a CoE into the award of the Beetham Water Recycling Project to SISL. Speaking at yesterday’s post general council press briefing, both men said that the Government should but would not call for a CoE into this matter.
They say that the Government was focusing on the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) Las Alturas project in order to tie Rowley to an investigation in an election year. “They fishing for something, but the fish not biting,” Khan said. “They will never call an inquiry into themselves. We know that they will not call it,” Al-Rawi added.
“There are many reasons why a Commissions of Enquiry needs to be called into this Governments management, but we are confident that they will not do that,” he said.
rfari wrote:Read the entire article nah
rfari wrote:Lel. If u only know.
rfari wrote:I post the article.
rfari wrote:Well then, run around. Maybe the article isn't for you. No need to comment
According to the Instruction to Bidders, the sub-contractors must respond within two days of the delivery of the bid documents
Commissioner of State Lands Ian Fletcher says that Couva-based conglomerate Super Industrial Services (SIS) has been illegally occupying some 35 acres of land in Perseverance Village, Couva.
Fletcher, in an interview with the Express last Friday, said that SIS does not have tenancy for the 35 acres of land which it has already cleared and blocked off with fences since last July.
The land belonged to Caroni Ltd and was once vested to the Estate Management and Business Development Co Ltd (EMBD), but has now been vested with the Commissioner of State Lands.
That unit falls under the Ministry of Land and Marine Resources, headed by Minister Jairam Seemungal.
SIS, founded by Krishna Lalla in 1979, has a main office at Rivulet Road, Couva, and another office at Farm Road, Perseverance, which acts as a warehouse operation.
It is adjacent to the land that the company has fenced off.
“SIS does not have a tenancy for the land. I know they have a lease for part of the land, but not for the other part,” Fletcher said.
Under the Basdeo Panday administration, SIS obtained a lease for a 30-acre parcel of land on which its warehouse and some of its business operations are now located.
Last August, the Sunday Express had exclusively reported on the land grab by SIS.
Sunday Express investigations had revealed that some farmers, who had been squatting on the lands for some 15 years, quit their crops after being offered cash by SIS to vacate the land.
Some farmers claim to have been intimidated into vacating the land, while others accepted $2,000 to $5,000 to abandon the land.
Caroni officials had told the Sunday Express they were unaware of any approval being given to SIS.
Ronald Alfred, head of the Original Jab Jab, who has been squatting on his piece of land for the last 15 years, turned down a cash offer of $50,000 from SIS to vacate his land.
He has since sought the assistance of Couva North MP Ramona Ramdial in getting a lease for the land, but the matter has not yet been resolved.
As of now, SIS has basically taken the place of the farmers squatting on the State lands.
Fletcher explained that SIS has only now applied to his office for tenancy of the land.
“They are now going through the process of complying, but I don’t know if they will get the approvals,” he said.
Pressed on what action he would take if SIS was not granted final approval for the land, Fletcher replied: “They will be asked to vacate or I will remove them.”
SIS is a business conglomerate that has been the recipient of million-dollar contracts from the People’s Partnership Government.
The Express tried unsuccessfully to contact SIS’ chief executive David Lumsden for comment.
Lalla has said he does not own SIS.
UML wrote:is the problem the price? or is it because it was SIS?
do we support our local industry or send our money abroad?
yes I agree that the difference in price is worrying..then you have to consider quality and local employment benefits
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