Water shortages are nothing new in Barbados insists Minister of the Environment and Drainage, Dr. Denis Lowe.
Speaking as Parliament resumed from its summer break yesterday, he pointed out that as a water-scarce country, the island, especially its rural districts had suffered from outages from time to time and suggested therefore that criticisms of the Barbados Water Authority and the Minister with responsibility for water were unwarranted.
“I do not know why people want to persecute the Minister of Agriculture, as though he is going out there and purposefully not supplying communities with water,” Lowe said.
In fact, the former minister of water resources noted that during his tenure, the island was losing 60 per cent of its water due to burst mains.
He therefore lauded the current minister for implementing a mains replacement programme, while doing other meter related projects.
“The problem is that we are water-scarce to begin with, there has been a reduction in rainfall and therefore we are having challenges with the water supply, but that too shall pass because the honourable minister has a plan, where he is implementing new measures to supplement the water supply around the island. So whether it is St. Andrew, St. Joseph, St. Thomas, St. Peter or wherever it might be, this government has set on a path to correct those issues once and for all,” he said.
Leading off the debate on a resolution on the Barbados Green Economy Scoping Study, the minister expressed concern with the deterioration of the coral reefs.
“Our coral reef systems around the island have been hit hard by climate change factors. There is an exacerbation of coral bleaching and if you take a dive around the popular areas of the island, you will see the devastation that has occurred,” he said, noting that a project would soon be launched to help this important ecosystem. (JMB)
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