Forde: Stop overusing water to wash ash

With Barbados battling a water crisis in the middle of the dry season, St Thomas MP Cynthia Forde has issued a plea to Barbadians to desist from overusing the limited supply to wash the volcanic ash from their homes and cars.

Forde, whose constituency has also been hard hit by water shortages, told journalists that people across the island can be seen using water to wash away the ash from their properties, at a time the island is facing a drought and reservoir levels are extremely low.

This followed the declaration of a national ash clean-up by the Prime Minister last week.

Forde, Minister of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs, admitted that she has even seen residents in her own constituency “washing down every morning” when there are households where water is not running from the taps.

But the MP said residents should do less washing down in light of the fact that though the ash fall is not as heavy as when it first started, it is still coming to the island.

She declared: “Desist from the constant washing down. Yes, you have to wash down because you have animals and so. But on the other hand, you are washing down for animals, but then there are animals in the field that get no water because of the shortage that we are experiencing. I plead with them. Please, desist from washing down every day.”

Forde was speaking Monday at the presentation of bottled water from the Barbados Bottling Company (BBC) to the parishes of St Joseph, St Thomas, and St John at the Grantley Adams Memorial School, joined by fellow MPs for the rural parishes hard hit by water shortages. She suggested that householders thoroughly wash down their homes when the ash fall completely stops, instead of doing it every day of the week now.

She said those who may not be living through the challenge of water shortages in their communities, must remember that water matters and it is critical to everybody’s life and living.

Forde said: “And I know that Barbadians are always good minded. It is just that some of them don’t remember. And the ash is really a terrible nuisance. But we cannot be having it to wash down the house when other people don’t have it for basic domestic use. Up until 2017, we in St Thomas and some other communities were just devastated and the only thing that saved me these few days, is that I have a water tank”.

Minister in the Ministry of Water Resources Charles Griffith, who is also the St John MP, issued a reminder that the Barbados Water Authority (BWA) has been undergoing several water augmentation projects in an effort to resolve several of the water challenges.

Griffith said: “We have the Vineyard to Bowmanston Golden Ridge Project that will put water through the eastern corridor, including St John, St Joseph, St Thomas, parts of St Andrew. We are also looking at desalination as a means of alleviating the problems we are having in the northern corridor, which would be St Peter and St Lucy. But we understand that there is a major issue as it relates to the mains in the northern area. So what we are looking to do is to have an extensive mains replacement programme in that section of the country.”

To ensure that residents in affected parishes have continued access to water; the BWA has instituted a programme where water truck drivers will fill the community tanks at night, allowing those drivers working the morning shift to focus on providing households with water, he said.

Griffith also said the BWA will be placing an additional 100 2,000-gallon water tanks in communities significantly affected by water outages.

Member of Parliament for St Joseph, Attorney General Dale Marshall refuted allegations that standpipes across St Joseph have been turned off by authorities. He said while there are not many standpipes in the parish, no order has been given to turn them off. But, Marshall admitted that if there is no water in the system, then persons may conclude the standpipe is turned off.

Marshall appealed to his constituents who are aggrieved by the situation, to be patient until the water augmentation projects have been completed and indicated that the Government has placed resolving the issues as a top priority.

He said: “The Water Authority has been having some challenges and in my discussion with the Water Authority over the last few days even though they have put down additional tanks and put down larger tanks, I am told that the turnaround time for a tanker to get back is about three to four hours because it takes an hour to fill one of those tankers. And of course, they can’t get a top-up of water from these areas, because these areas have no water.” (AH)