For years, pri­vate wa­ter truck­ing com­pa­nies have played a crit­i­cal sup­port role in Trinidad and To­ba­go’s wa­ter dis­tri­b­u­tion sys­tem, step­ping in when pipe-borne sup­ply is dis­rupt­ed. In­ter­views with truck dri­vers, em­ploy­ees and in­dus­try sources in­di­cate that the sec­tor is now un­der se­vere strain due to chron­ic non-pay­ment by the Wa­ter and Sew­er­age Au­thor­i­ty (WASA), with one long-stand­ing con­trac­tor fac­ing the prospect of clo­sure and dozens of work­ers ex­pe­ri­enc­ing grow­ing fi­nan­cial hard­ship.Truck dri­vers af­fil­i­at­ed with Flex­i­ble En­ter­pris­es Ltd con­tact­ed Sun­day Guardian Busi­ness Mag­a­zine over re­cent weeks, de­scrib­ing a wors­en­ing sit­u­a­tion that has left em­ploy­ees “on the bread­line” and the com­pa­ny un­able to meet ba­sic fi­nan­cial oblig­a­tions. Their iden­ti­ties are be­ing pro­tect­ed due to fear of vic­tim­i­sa­tion and loss of fu­ture work.The com­pa­ny, which has pro­vid­ed wa­ter truck­ing and re­lat­ed ser­vices to WASA for more than two decades, has not re­ceived pay­ment since June 2025, ac­cord­ing to mul­ti­ple sources. That last pay­ment, de­scribed as par­tial, was stretched over sev­er­al months in an at­tempt to keep op­er­a­tions alive. With those funds now ex­haust­ed, the com­pa­ny is strug­gling to ser­vice loans, pay staff, main­tain in­sur­ance cov­er­age and keep a fleet of more than 75 trucks road­wor­thy.“This is not about ask­ing for a hand­out,” one source ex­plained. “The work was done. We have all the doc­u­men­ta­tion to prove it. We met every con­trac­tu­al oblig­a­tion. What we are ask­ing for is com­mu­ni­ca­tion and some lev­el of pay­ment to keep the com­pa­ny afloat.”

The com­pa­ny de­clined to out­line the amount of mon­ey it claims is owed to it, cit­ing se­cu­ri­ty con­cerns.

A sec­tor hol­lowed out