THE Chairman of the Barbados Water Authority, Dr. Atlee Brathwaite, says that the Authority is consistently working towards the goal of bringing relief to residents affected by constant water outages due to prolonged drought.
He said nightly shutoffs to try to get more water into Golden Ridge Reservoir to allow for pumping to Castle Grant Reservoir which feeds most of the higher areas of St. Joseph, St. Andrew and St. Thomas, is just one of the measures.
Speaking at the recent launch of the Personal Tank Programme (PTP), Dr. Brathwaite said the cleaning of Bowmanston well and the lowering of the pump into the well (so as to avoid pumping air as water levels drop) along with examining the potential for the deepening of the wells at Sweetvale 1 and 2, are also other measures.
BWA is also intensifying leak detection and repairs within the Golden Ridge/Castle Grant networks, in addition to improving burst main repairs response times.
Delivering water to affected areas by water tankers and increasing the fleet of tanks to 14, managed by the recently created Rapid Response Unit, is also taking place.
“Barbados is a water scarce country; simply put. We use more water than is currently available to us.
“The government of Barbados is committed to ensuring that this country’s development is not stalled because of an inadequate water supply, therefore, we cannot only rely on rainfall for potable water, and new sources of water have to be found.
“Improved water management systems have to be installed. We are aware of the water desalination being operated by Ionics and we are expanding this operation,” he said.
Furthermore, the Chairman explained that the BWA has commissioned the St. Philip Water Augmentation project which has added an additional three million gallons of water to the southeast of the island; the construction of two, six-million-gallon desalination plants – one in the north and the other in the south; increasing capacity at the desalination plant at Spring Garden by three million gallons a day and completing the Northern Upgrade Project to ensure supply in the most affected areas.
“Actions to implement robust water management are crucial. Barbadians need to change their approach to conserving water and create storage capacity to support themselves in times of low rainfall which is inevitable as the entire world continues to be affected by climate change,” he said. (AH)