Abrahams issues warning

Commercial businesses or residents found guilty of improper disposal of fats, oils and greases  (FOGs) along the south coast could soon face the full weight of the law.

Minister of Energy and Water Resources Wilfred Abrahams issued the warning at a press conference today held at the Barbados Water Authority’s (BWA) Pine, St Michael headquarters.

He said residents and commercial businesses found to be guilty of improperly disposing of their waste will be prosecuted and taken off the sewage system.

Abrahams was speaking about the significant amount of FOGS lining the sewers along the island’s southern belt. He said the BWA will be embarking on an aggressive educational programme to educate the public on the proper disposal of FOGS.

“The major culprits in this are a number of the commercial entities who literally dump their oil down the sink. We are going to have a comprehensive plan of inspection of grease traps. Where people are not using their grease traps or not maintaining their grease traps, we will take you off the sewage systems and we will prosecute you for it,” Abrahams said.

“We are not tolerating. If you are not prepared to play your part and be responsible in the disposal of your waste then we are going to deal with you accordingly. We cannot allow what happened before to happen again and the Barbados Water Authority is taking all the steps and utilizing all the resources at its disposal to ensure that it does not.”

The grease traps belonging to residents and commercial businesses will be regularly inspected starting from this month.

The Minister said that to date, 309 customers on the south coast have received letters with the guidelines and regulation concerning grease traps. Joint stakeholder meetings were ongoing to assess and monitor further developments as well.

“We are not putting you back on unless you can satisfy us that you have an adequate grease trap in place that you are using and that is not going to cause a danger to us,” said Abrahams.  (KK)