Local farmer and Co-director of J&P Farms Ltd. Bernice Chase.
Citizens of Barbados, especially farmers are being encouraged to find alternative ways to insure they
have a constant flow of water
supply to their homes and
businesses.
This advice is coming from local farmer and Co-director of J&P Farms Ltd. Bernice Chase, as herself and colleagues continue to deal
with the extended drought
conditions the country has been
facing.
When asked about how the current situation was being dealt with, Chase revealed that because of the Barbados Agriculture Development Marketing Corporation (BADMC), the dire situation was stable for the time being.
“As far as the drought is concerned we have a drip irrigation from BADMC. It gets rationed but we are also putting in a water catchment system to store rain water. We had some issues with the implementation in the past, however most of those have ironed out by now. Under this new administration they seem to be doing a better job with it, however time will tell,” she said.
Though more could always be done, Chase believes it is incumbent on normal citizens, as well as agriculturalists to find ways to deal with the drought issues in their own way.
“My take on this is that all farmers and householders should harvest rain water. We have too many roofs in Barbados for it to be labelled a water scarce country. Efficient use of our roofs, gullies and water courses would fix that problem. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel and there is no lack of innovation on our part, somebody just got to do it and that is us,” Chase explained.
When asked about how realistic it would be to source the needed materials locally to make such projects viable, Chase was confident that local suppliers would be more than able to meet the demand.
“Most parts for such systems can be sourced locally. If you are thinking of making a pool in a pond or water course, the pond liner might not be readily available here and might need to be brought in. Catching water from roofs requires drums or other forms of receptacles,” Chase outlined.
With the drought conditions on the island predicted to continue for some time into 2020, Chase is hoping more is done within the public and private sectors, to influence important stakeholders in pushing more of these water catchment initiatives into the mainstream. (SB)