NO QUICK FIX
FIXING the water challenges in this country will not be an easy task.
This is according to Andrew Hutchinson of Stantec Consulting, who was speaking earlier this week during a Rotary West meeting at Bagatelle Great House.
However, he highlighted that the framework is already there to ensure that the necessary improvements can be made to correct the issues which we currently face.
He suggested that one of the critical problems remains the maintenance of the infrastructure of the distribution network, which takes water through the system.
“As Barbadians we are blessed because we have an excellent water distribution network that we have built up over 155 years – we first harvested water from springs on the East Coast in 1861…we have excellent reservoirs, pipes etc. Indeed, I’m not knocking the system…but clearly there is need for maintenance of the system.
“We have a good system but the maintenance of it has gone down and we need to build it back up. In my opinion, it can take as long as ten years because it is not a quick-fix situation, but this requires funding...
“The Barbados Water Authority has taken important initiatives already such as main replacements; new meters which you should see higher revenues, they are doing the right things, but water utility is not something you can fix at the flick of a switch. We need to work at it for the next ten years to bring it back where it should be,” he asserted.
Hutchinson also reiterated that the time has come to seriously look at other means of utilising rainwater, and pointed to rain water harvesting as a viable option.
“I’m a very strong advocate for rain water harvesting ... If we embrace rainwater harvesting domestically and you can do it commercially as well, even if we could capture another two per cent of what comes out the sky it would make a big difference. I have been advocating this for some time and I’m not giving up, but I think we need to get across the message to Barbadians the need for rainwater harvesting even through non-portable uses. Approximately 50 per cent of the water in your house is used to flush toilets and do laundry, if you have rainwater harvesting for flushing toilets etc. you would reduce the pressure on the water authority because you would be using more of what comes out the sky.
“Rainwater harvesting is not new, it is done in Bermuda and they have managed the resource skillfully, we have not done that. The water challenge is everyone’s problem, we tend to say its the government’s or water authority’s, but it is our problem. Changes will require a major culture shift, education, fiscal tariffs and incentives to make that shift,” he added.
Hutchinson further suggested that, “There needs to be a balance between the water authority, water harvesting and you still need desalination. A water supply system has to have a redundancy, we saw that a few years ago when there was a drought, if we have a redundancy in the system we will have a fall back plan. The best redundancy would be the desalination plant, so when there is a drought you can take water from the desalination plant to fill the void. The drought to some extent exposed our underbelly to the fact that we didn’t have any surplus capacity. There are initiatives being made to build another desalination plant… A lot of good initiatives are being taken, but finance is needed which is scarce.”
He urged Rotarians to use their networking skills and knowledge of the country to promote the economic use of rainwater resources for the benefit of Barbados. (NB)