Chief Environmental Health Officer reveals plans for upcoming water safety training

Members of this island’s Environmental Health Department will be involved in training during the coming week in the area of water safety.

Chief Environmental Health Officer, Francina Bascombe disclosed this as she spoke the St. Philip Polyclinic’s World Water Day ceremony yesterday. This event was comprised of a number of informative presentations by representatives of governmental and non-governmental agencies.

“As a Department, we are embarking on training of our team of officers starting next week, where we are ensuring that all of us understand the value of our scarce resource and to ensure that when we go out there all of us are speaking the same language and doing the same things. So we intend to train our officers over the next couple of weeks to ensure that the water you receive is safe. That the potable water you are using for drinking is safe; the water that you are using when you go to the swimming pools – that too is safe.”

During her remarks, Bascombe also highlighted some of the duties of environmental health officers which include routinely collecting potable water samples and having them tested for bacteria, as well as collecting and testing water in swimming pools. This is done to ensure that locals and visitors will not get sick when they drink water from the tap or use swimming pools across the island.

She reminded those present not to take having access to clean drinking water daily for granted.

“The theme for World Water Day 2019 is ‘Leaving No One Behind’. As a water scarce country, we in Barbados must make sure that we are not left behind. To this end, every citizen in Barbados must play their part and conserve water so that our precious, scarce resource can remain safe and assessable to all.” (MG)