Pen­ne­lope Beck­les has ac­cused the Gov­ern­ment of po­ten­tial­ly us­ing the wa­ter sup­ply as a tool for po­lit­i­cal vic­tim­i­sa­tion, say­ing res­i­dents in Ari­ma and parts of East Trinidad be­lieve their wors­en­ing wa­ter short­ages be­gan af­ter the April 28 Gen­er­al Elec­tion.

The Op­po­si­tion Leader made the claim in a state­ment on Wednes­day as she high­light­ed weeks-long dis­rup­tions af­fect­ing sev­er­al com­mu­ni­ties, in­clud­ing Va­len­cia West, where she said some res­i­dents have been with­out a pipe-borne wa­ter sup­ply for al­most three weeks.

Beck­les said res­i­dents in Pin­to Road, Cal­vary, San­ta Rosa and Ari­ma Prop­er, who pre­vi­ous­ly re­ceived a reg­u­lar wa­ter sup­ply be­fore the elec­tion, are now ex­pe­ri­enc­ing pro­longed short­ages and low wa­ter pres­sure.