Chairman of Williams Industries Limited, Ralph ‘Bizzy’ Williams (left), pointing out some of the features of the desalination plant to Acting General Manager of the Barbados Water Authority (BWA), John Mwansa; Minister of Labour and Social Security, Senator Dr. Esther Byer-Suckoo; and Minister of Agriculture, Food, Fisheries and Water Resource Management, Dr. David Estwick, at the official opening ceremony for the plant located at Hope, St. Lucy yesterday.
A view of the desalination plant at Hope, St. Lucy.
THE first of two containerised desalination plants, expected to pump an additional 700 000 to 800 000 gallons of water into the distribution system daily, has officially been commissioned.
Speaking at the official opening ceremony for the plant located at Hope, St. Lucy, Minister of Agriculture, Food, Fisheries and Water Resource Management, Dr. David Estwick, disclosed that the second of these medium-term solutions to be located at Trents, St. James, should come on stream by November, both intended to feed into the distribution system of the North, to augment existing water supplies. His comments came as he said that in the medium term, to further address the challenges of water supply, they are also looking at expanding the output from the present desalination facility at Spring Garden, by three to four million gallons a day.
Moreover, he said to satisfy the policy and the strategy of moving away from the reliance on groundwater resources, Government intends to introduce two additional permanent seawater desalination plants. And in fact, he revealed that discussions are ongoing with the principals involved in that project.
He explained that even the slightest drought situations can put the groundwater supplies under pressure, as has been the case in recent times, and so it is imperative that they find feasible alternatives to utilise. He indicated the long-term sustainable solutions to upgrade the island’s water resource must be of a desalination nature, noting that anything else is subject to the quantity of rainfall the country gets.
With that in mind, he said while the Barbados Water Authority is often accused of being incompetent and blamed for the lack of water, the criticisms are unfair as 11 of the last 20 years the country has been subjected to drought conditions, and particularly over the last four years. The water resource management minister said that while the average rainfall per year is usually 54 to 55 inches, last year only 31 inches were recorded; in 2014 it was 40; 2013 rainfall was measured at 44 inches; and 2012 it was 47.
“We knew from 1998 that with a rainfall on average of 50 to 55 inches per year, that when that water gets down to the aquifers that we were essentially abstracting all of that water and using it for our normal consumption. It is now 20 years past and the drought conditions have worsened, therefore if you are abstracting at the same rate and you have the declining precipitation year after year, pray tell me where is the Water Authority going to get the water from?” he said.
Admittedly, Dr. Estwick said that reliance on groundwater sources should have stopped a long time ago, but stating that there is no use bemoaning that fact and making it a political matter, he said the current Administration and the Ministry under his leadership is prepared to address the issues head on.
He made the point while highlighting that in addition to the desalination plants to be commissioned, he has asked the General Manager of the Barbados Water Authority to also explore the idea of creating a dam in the north of the island to help with establishing a stable water supply. Estwick told those gathered that they are aware that the amount of water that stays in the dam is subject to the quantity of rain that falls and the temperature outside, and so he maintained even though it is one of the solutions they can employ, it cannot be the “fundamental solution”.
He added then that the Barbados Water Authority is also looking to access areas of water that have not been already tapped into, such as Sweet Vale, St. George. He said they have already completed one borehole providing half a million gallons of water directly into the Castle Grant system, and they are preparing a second borehole in the area to provide another half million gallons of water in another three to four weeks’ time. (JRT)
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