Diesel thieves hampering government’s emergency response

Government’s preparedness efforts for the hurricane season and other emergencies are being hampered by thieves, who are stealing diesel from generation plants and other critical facilities.

These include Barbados Water Authority (BWA) stations; the Barbados Meteorological Services’ weather radar at Castle Grant, St. Joseph; hurricane shelters, mainly the schools; vehicles, and other critical entities.

And, Minister of Home Affairs and Information, Wilfred Abrahams, has warned that such actions could put not just those at fault, but the entire country at risk during and in the aftermath of an impact from a weather event.

Abrahams made the disclosure today, during a press conference at the Ministry’s Wildey, St. Michael headquarters.

“What we have discovered recently with the hurricane shelters, and also with other persons who have generators, is that some lawless persons have been stealing the diesel, siphoning off the diesel from the generators. So it means that we cannot pre-position, in many cases, to have the generators available constantly,” he lamented.

He added that such instances of theft were on the increase, with the most recent happening on Thursday night at the weather radar station, where persons broke in and were seen attempting to steal the diesel from the radar’s generator.

“That radar is critical. It is critical for early warning; it is critical for us to be able to see what is going on…. That radar also informs the air traffic control of weather systems. That radar is critical to the national security of Barbados,” Abrahams emphasised.

In the case of the BWA, the Minister said a decision was taken not to prefill all the diesel storage for its generators because of the pilfering.

He explained that there were numerous installations across the country with approximately 32 generators for the BWA, around 40 category one hurricane shelters, including the hospital, polyclinics, fire and police stations.

“We cannot police all of those. We cannot station security by the radar for the purpose of catching thieves,” Abrahams stated, while noting that security measures such as fences, barb wire and security cameras were already in forced.

At the same time, he explained that it would be difficult following the issuance of a watch or warning, to have diesel trucks drive to all the locations to fill generators with diesel ahead of a pending weather event.

The Minister said the matter was one for moral suasion, and appealed to members of the public to urge anyone they knew, who may be engaging in this practice, to stop. He also appealed to persons not to purchase diesel in a five-gallon drum.

“What you are doing is wrong and is crippling Government’s ability to activate its emergency procedures,” he said.

However, Abrahams made it clear that all options were being considered to bring the situation to a halt. And, while noting he was appealing for moral suasion at this time, the Minister voiced his intention to raise the matter with the Attorney General, to determine the best way forward.