EDITORIAL: Water woes

IN a press conference on April 21 this year during the aftermath of the volcanic eruptions at La Soufrière, St. Vincent, the topic of the local water supply took center stage. At the time, residents of St. Joseph were experiencing water outages and were making requests for assistance.

During the press conference, Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley admitted that there was a water crisis in the country because of the increase in use for cleaning purposes due to the heavy ashfall the island experienced. At the time, there was a call for persons to use non-potable water wherever possible to do their cleaning, but the regular man would not have access to such water unless he was a farmer or other similar person who would still need to use that water for the purposes which it was stored.

The Prime Minister also disclosed surprisingly that Guyana and Dominica would be providing some assistance to Barbados with water. It was said that Guyana had sent several cases of bottled water, which were to be distributed for domestic use, but more interesting was the fact that discussions were taking place with the Government of Dominica to provide between two and two-and-a-half million gallons of water to Barbados per week until the island could stabilize its water supply and ensure that residents had reasonable access to water.

This is not the first time residents from rural areas in Barbados have had to cry out about the lack of water, it is an ongoing problem and it is a serious one. However, the Prime Minister has made clear to Barbadians that the Government is making every attempt to solve the problem.

A well field at Groves, St. Philip is to be used to increase the water supply and more neighbourhood tanks should be added to supplement the ones already present in St. Joseph. Those tanks will also be serviced more consistently as the lack of supply was still an issue with the tanks present. There were also new permanent and temporary desalination plants envisioned as a long-term solution to the water issues. Work was also being done to send water from the Shop Hill reservoir to Vineyard in order to service the people of St. Joseph.

The public is truly grateful for these attempts because it is clear that the system for provision of water requires a lot of extra work and financial expense.

There was some concern from the general public about the water being imported and whether it would be as safe for consumption as the water that residents are used to. The Barbados Water Authority responded to those concerns, stating that any water received by the country was subject to strict testing before it was distributed. Some of the imported water arrived during the first week of May 2021 and was subject to such testing. The Authority stated that they had no intention of compromising the quality of our water.

Altogether this story is of great concern and it is time that the problem of water shortages on the island is kept as a consistent priority with work towards a long-term solution, so that residents can have some peace of mind knowing that there is a high likelihood that when they wake up in the mornings there will be water running through their taps. Water is essential to life and for a country that brags about its natural limestone filtration system, we are in a sad state when it comes to our water supply.