Time to take stock

THE Democratic Labour Party (DLP) says that while the nation must be grateful for no loss of life during the passing of Hurricane Elsa, the event provides an opportunity for the country to take stock.

“After the passage of Hurricane Elsa, there are some clear gaps in our national hurricane preparedness which need to be addressed. We are thankful that there were no fatalities or injuries as a result of the storm. However, the complaints about the delays in having utilities restored suggests that for most Barbadians, the level of service and recovery time is not where they want them to be,” said Andre Worrell, the Party’s spokesperson on the Environment.

The former Senator said Elsa was the island’s first major infrastructure test since Hurricane Janet in 1955. “Tomas was a drill; Elsa provided a real test!”

Worrell noted that the Barbados Light & Power (BL&P) was praised for being able to quickly restore service to the urban corridor. However, customers in rural parishes such as St. John, St. Lucy, St. Joseph, St. Andrew and parts of St. Philip felt like they lived in another Barbados, having to go for more than four days without electricity.

“What can we do better to ensure less disruption and faster restoration of service in the future? These constructive discussions should be vigorously pursued now that the experience is fresh in our minds,” he suggested.

The DLP candidate for the Constituency of St. John suggested adoption of a national policy to move to underground utility networks as a part of the solution. He added that the BL&P should move to train more crews in power line replacement.

However, the St. John resident was critical of the Barbados Water Authority (BWA) whose performance he described as being “consistently below par even prior to the hurricane”.

“How much longer can we as a country continue to accept that as normal? In the briefings prior to the storm, BWA stated it would take some of its plant offline to protect equipment. This was done to facilitate a quick return to service once the all-clear was given as generators could be used to supply power. What problems did the BWA encounter which resulted in many communities left without running water and empty community tanks for days after the all-clear? Can we do better?” he queried.

He said that following the ashfall in April, the DLP had suggested that the BWA invest in strategically placed reservoirs to gravity feed the system after natural disasters where the power supply is compromised, and he reiterated his constant call for desalination plants to supply that storage capacity.

The spokesperson also made reference to the severe challenges faced by the telecommunications companies.

“With no electricity, all of Barbados was left without landlines throughout the storm and for days after. What made matters worse is that the mobile services did not live up to expectations due to damage to signal towers. Calls, WhatsApp messages, texts would not go through.

“When we consider that Elsa barely registered as a Category One and our utilities buckled, it tells us that we are not ready for the monster storms which are becoming more commonplace.”

While praising the utility crews who worked around the clock, Worrell advised a joint post-mortem brainstorming between Government and the critical stakeholders to ensure Barbados’ service providers are in a better position should the country experience other hurricanes in what we are told will be an active season.