Power outage affects BWA pumping stations, customers

The island-wide power outage which took place on Monday affected the Barbados Water Authority (BWA)’s pumping stations, and as such, parts of the island were without water.

Joy-Ann Haigh, Rapid Response and Communications Manager at the BWA acknowledged the above. She further noted that the Authority had to dispatch tankers to customers in some parishes as well as to some schools, which got in full swing again yesterday.

When contacted for details about the impact of the outage, Haigh noted, “It impacted us a lot, because the pumping stations do rely heavily on the Barbados Light & Power. The tankers this morning, as a result, they have been dispatched. Of course, we needed to make sure that the emergency services were OK and then the schools, today being the first day of school for most and then everyone else afterward.”

The Communications Manager revealed that in particular, the Queen Elizabeth Hospital had no major challenges, as the Belle Pumping Station was able to service the island’s main health care institution, as power was restored on Monday night. However, some customers and schools in Christ Church, St. James and St. Thomas and those living in elevated areas, were mainly affected.

Haigh stressed that whereas electricity was restored by the Barbados Light & Power Company (BL&P) to all of its customers as of Tuesday morning, the situation is a bit different at the BWA, as the Authority has to wait until its reservoirs are replenished, before water supply can be fully restored to all of its customers.

“When the electricity comes back on, it’s a different set up for the BWA, because once the electricity goes off, the system starts to drop, because then it is not being replenished. There is no pumping into the system. So the longer it’s off, the lower the levels become and then, we then have to wait for the levels to come back up, in order for everyone to get a satisfactory water supply,” she explained.

“But we continue and will continue to service all of our customers as best we can,” she assured, though noting that due to the widespread outage, customers may experience some delays.

“The water supply is expected to return to normal as soon as the BL&P makes sure everything is stable, then of course our part is to just wait for the system to recover and the levels to return to acceptable levels,” Haigh told The Barbados Advocate.