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FROM LEFT: General Manager of the Barbados Water Authority, Keithroy Halliday, making a point during the press conference, as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator Maxine McClean and Minister of Health, John Boyce look on.

‘DRINKING WATER SAFE’

Barbados’ potable water is safe!

That’s the message that officials of Government are sending to Barbadians and persons abroad, along with the fact that our potable water meets the standards of the World Health Organisation’s drinking water guidelines.

It came during a press conference called yesterday at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade to address the health alert issued on Thursday by the United States Embassy here in Barbados, regarding elevated levels of bacteria being found in tap water from their residences.

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator Maxine McClean, made it clear that information from the Embassy officials indicated there were no traces for Salmonella, Coliform and E. Coli in the tests performed. Barbadians can therefore breathe a sigh of relief, as those three bacteria, she stated, are considered of primary public health concern.

She explained that this information, as well as where the samples were taken, were among some of the specifics of the tests, which came to light in a meeting that she, along with Minister of Health, John Boyce, the General Manager of the Barbados Water Authority (BWA), tourism officials and representatives of other Government agencies had with Ambassador Linda Taglialatela, and other officials of the US Embassy.

That meeting, which the Foreign Affairs Minister described as cordial, also saw the US Embassy acceding to a request from Barbados to allow, as a matter of urgency, the collection of water samples from the properties which were tested, and going forward for simultaneous samples to be collected.

When questioned further about the Embassy’s health alert, McClean disclosed that it was based on the findings of five out of 68 properties of the Embassy, located in the Christ Church area.

According to Minister Boyce, the locations included Atlantic Shores, Graeme Hall and Enterprise, but he explained that while all were in Christ Church, none are connected to the South Coast Sewage Treatment Plant.

Acting Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Anton Best, revealed however that no specific information was provided by the Embassy officials on the laboratory used for the testing, the process employed, or the methodology of testing.

“However the results that were shared with us only a few hours ago did show that the samples taken at four out of five places were negative for three sets of bacteria, which are of public health concern, and that is Salmonella, E. Coli and Coliforms. The test result that was of concern was a total bacterial count, something that is very non specific, and from our perspective it was not a very analytical test because when you get a result like that, there are a lot more tests that have to be done to determine the source, and to determine the significance of finding bacteria in the water,” he explained.

In her statement, Minister McClean revealed that the BWA has been sending 50 samples from the island’s distribution system to the Best-dos Santos Public Health Laboratory weekly for testing, and the BWA’s General Manager, Keithroy Halliday indicated that that many samples were over and above what the Pan American Health Organisation requires, which is eight.

“This is just to make sure our sample is well disbursed and we are being extra careful… But in addition to that, what is hopefully very well known, is that we have from a security standpoint, stepped up or at least elevated the amount of chlorination we do to the water at source and in addition to the sampling we also do, EPD [Environmental Protection Department] has been doing a number of their own sampling as well,” he said. (JRT)

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