Minister Duguid urges better water use and reuse

Barbadians are being urged to better manage their water usage and to reuse the precious commodity where possible.

Senior Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office in charge of Infrastructural Projects and Town Planning Matters Dr William Duguid gave the advice last weekend during a cocktail reception to officially announce the merger of Integrated Sustainability, a Canada-based sustainable infrastructure development specialist firm and the Barbados-based water maintenance and management company Ecohesion.

He said Barbados has had to take the expensive route of desalination to help deal with its water scarcity, and while Government was working on reducing incidents of dry taps, residents must “use less water, preserve water and understand that water is an important resource and understand that Barbados is one of the few water-scarce nations”.

“What we had to do is spend lots of money taking salt out of water to be able to make it usable and potable but, of course, that makes it expensive. What this partnership can do is to bring those opportunities to teach people how to desalinate, to use renewable energy for desalination to make water much more affordable, and to bring those financing opportunities and to bring those new techniques and technologies so that we get better water use and [are] able to use water in a much more efficient and circular way,” Dr Duguid said.

“We need to understand that when you finish with water that is not the end. Water can be reused. Water can be reused for irrigation, water can be used in many different [situations], and that is what we need to do,” he stressed.

The Minister said he was looking forward to the island benefiting from the merger of Integrated Sustainability and Ecohesion, both financially and in technology and knowledge sharing.

“We as a nation have to look to do different things to get better results for the people of Barbados. So I look forward to great things coming from this merger,” he added.

Dr Duguid also stressed the need for the Government, the private sector, and non-governmental organisations to work together, noting that this administration would continue to be “a facilitator, regulator, legislator and supporter”.

“That is what we are trying to do here by having a wonderful merger with our Canadian partners with local Ecohesion, to be able to bring water sustainability and to help people to understand in Barbados how precious a resource water is,” he said.

Company officials said while there have been many discussions in the past about change, they were confident this merger had come at the right time to help propel the island’s water management and sustainability efforts.

Corey Jackman, Co-Founder and Director of Ecohesion, told the gathering that the merger would lead to improvement in water management on the island as the company seeks to partner with the Government.

“To me, this means growth, it means being able to explore new frontiers, it means being able to do things differently. I love the collaboration of international experience with local know-how, in that you get the best solutions. And that is what we are – a solutions-oriented company in the water and wastewater industry. We intend to make Barbados better,” declared Jackman.

“The key focus here is to make water sustainable and to make it safe. Any financial derivative comes as an added benefit.” (MM)