BWA receives equipment to help fix sewage problem

The Barbados Water Authority (BWA) is presently in possession of two brand new excavators and an additional two will soon be cleared from the Bridgetown Port, to aid the BWA in its efforts at fixing the ongoing South Coast sewage problem.

General Manager of the BWA, Keithroy Halliday met with members of the press yesterday at the BWA’s Lift Station on Bay Street, St. Michael to make the announcement and to give a brief update on the progress being made to date.

“Everyone is quite aware and up to date about the situation that we face on the South Coast. In many respects, the general public and a number of individuals are not aware of some of the steps that we have been taking in the interim and certainly over the last several weeks to mitigate some of the risks and certainly to be able to deal with the issues at hand,” he commented.

“A few months ago we had actually ordered in four of the excavators in anticipation that they would be needed not just to assist us on the potable water side, but also in the waste water division, recognising that we were seeing some blockages and in anticipation that at some point, we may have to do some excavation,” he added.

“We were able to clear two of the excavators today. We still have two in the Port, so eventually the other two will be handed over,” he further commented.

Halliday meanwhile expressed his thanks to Innotech Equipment for procuring the state-of-the-art excavators for the BWA on such short notice, noting that the equipment will be used at the excavation site at the Bay Street Lift Station, just outside Government Headquarters.

He then explained that work is already taking place there to join the South sewerage network to the Bridgetown network, for greater ease.

“Some excavation is (presently) occurring, to ensure that we can join one sewerage network work to another. We are looking to join the sewerage network that goes to Bridgetown to that on the South Coast. The whole idea as we have indicated before, is to provide some form of relief on the South Coast side,” he explained.

“This is one option that is being explored. There are really no guarantees. We are not absolutely certain if it will work to the level or to the extent that we want it to, but we cannot not explore all of the options,” he however remarked.

Halliday did acknowledge that in putting additional load onto the Bridgetown sewerage system, the BWA will have to ease that load onto it.

“We’ll start with one pump and then possibly two or three other pumps (until) we know for sure that the current lines are holding. In addition to that, we have to make sure that we upgrade the pumping capacity at our River Road Lift Station and as well, we need to make some changes in preparation at the Bridgetown Sewerage Plant. So all of that is happening concurrent to the steps being taken on the South Coast,” Halliday revealed. (RSM)

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