Corporate Communications Specialist, of the BWA, Joyann Haigh, listening to the water supply concerns of Eric Small.
BWA MAKING PROGRESS
Fri, 06/10/2016 - 12:00am
By:
Peta Rowe-Forde
At the beginning of the year, amongst all the water supply challenges being faced by some Barbadians, the Barbados Water Authority (BWA) outlined some mitigation strategies it will be embarking on. To date, Corporate Communications Specialist, of the BWA Joyann Haigh is pleased to state that many of these measures are coming to fruition.
“The Sweet Vale system that we have down in Sweet Bottom is up and running and some people in St. Joseph are seeing some relief. The additional water source that was coming from Grove’s well in St. George did not work out in the way that we would have anticipated so we are doing a second bore hole in Sweet Vale,” explained Haigh.
However, Haigh further revealed that the problem with Golden Ridge and in the northern parts of the island still persists due to the drought and sporadic rainfall. She went on to say that the slight rainfall being experienced will not bring much relief because it is not consistent. In fact, even if it were consistent, Haigh stated that it will take about three months for it to get into the system for residents to see any change.
Added to that, the desalination plants are on the island. “There are two packaged desalination plants, one is a salt water plant and the other is a brackish water plant, both to be situated in the north within the next two to three months; so people can see the assistance in the improvement of the water supply through the desalination plants soon,” Haigh added.
The water supply at Groves, St. Philip which was launched in January to initially help with the increase in housing demands in the southern part of the island, has been changed so that its water could be used to assist some of the people in various parts going down the East Coast. Another success in this part of the island is the fact that St. John’s pumping station at Bowmanston no longer feeds parts of St. Philip.
As Haigh lastly spoke of the Mains Replacement Project that is wrapping up, she noted, “All of the projects are progressing nicely, the Mains Replacement Project obviously play a major role in helping with the drought situation because we are losing some water from the old mains and that should be rectified with the installation of these news ones.”