Minister of Agriculture, Food, Fisheries and Water Resource Management, Dr. David Estwick (left) chatting with Chairman of Williams Industries Limited, Ralph ‘Bizzy’ Williams (right) and Deputy Chairman of the BWA, Henry Barrow.
BWA to get more water tankers
Thu, 08/25/2016 - 12:00am
The Barbados Water Authority (BWA) is well on its way to having its fleet of water tankers to service the island increased.
Word of this has come from the Minister of Agriculture, Food, Fisheries and Water Resource Management, Dr. David Estwick, who explained that the additional tankers were promised last December and his Ministry is working to ensure that the promise is kept.
He was speaking yesterday during the official opening ceremony of the Package Desalination Plant at Hope, St. Lucy, where he announced that two new tankers are already in the BWA’s possession and four more are at the Port. He said the Minister of Finance, Christopher Sinckler will be working to ensure that they are brought out and put into operation soon.
“That therefore would represent six out of the eight and the other two are on the ship headed to Barbados. That would give us a fleet in total of about 13 to 14 water tankers as was promised,” he said.
Estwick’s comments came as he spoke about the ongoing effort being made by the BWA to augment the island’s water supply. He noted that while they have reaped success in many areas, the work at the Groves Agricultural Station in St. George, which was aimed at providing additional water, was not successful. He explained that they were not getting enough water for long enough periods of time, and they had to abandon the project.
Nevertheless, he said the Groves, St. Philip Water Augmentation project, which was to supplement the supply at Bowmanston which supplies Castle Grant via Golden Ridge, has been reaping success. He said those waters are also being utilised to take pressure off Bowmanston, by pumping water from Groves to parts of St. George via Ellerton and then from Ellerton again into Golden Ridge. He said all that work has been completed. The Minister added that Groves is producing three million gallons of water per day, which will also help to address the shortages in the St. Philip and Christ Church areas and allow for further development to take place.
(JRT)