A Win For Farmers - For Now

Following up on my post of yesterday describing the necessity of water for farmers, I'm happy to note that the Trinidad Express and Trinidad and Tobago Newsday report that there will be no fee for farmers for the use of river water. When I spoke with Norris Deonarine of the National Foodcrop Farmer's Association yesterday on the phone, the stance was that farmers weren't going to roll over and let WASA get away with a fee requirement to use water that would otherwise end up in the ocean.

Yesterday, the rumour mill also made it sound as if WASA wanted to charge farmers for use of their own ponds. This, apparently, is not the case.

However, the wording within the Trinidad Newsday article indicates that this could be an issue in the future (emphasis mine): 

The release stated that both ministers agreed that charges applicable by WASA to farmers for the removal of water from rivers for agricultural production will not be applied, at the moment.

 And Norris Deonarine hit another nail on the head (ibid): 

Education and Research Officer of the National Food Crop Farmers Association, Norris Deonarine, said while his association welcomes the move to increase the number of ponds for food production, he still does not understand why farmers have to obtain licences for water extraction. “These are not the issues WASA should be focusing on,” he said.

 You'd think that they would have other things to do than create a bureaucratic nightmare for themselves and farmers that simply costs more money and resources. Foolish? Yes. Or maybe they just want to feel like they've won some small victory out of a myopic idea at the cost of Trinidad and Tobago taxpayers.