Relief coming for water-scarce St Thomas

In the next four to five weeks, residents of Redman’s Village, St Thomas can anticipate some relief to the water shortages affecting their community.

Residents were given the assurance on Saturday by Minister of Energy and Water Resources Wilfred Abrahams  as he toured the district that has been plagued by water shortages.

Abrahams disclosed that the Barbados Water Authority has signed a contract with Ionics Freshwater Ltd to bolster the depleted water system.

Abrahams explained that the wells pumping to the district were extremely dry and the BWA would be partnering with Ionics to increase the water capacity being pumped into the system.

“We are going through a difficult period with respect to our water resources, our water resources are low. The dry season has not been kind to us, our reservoirs are low. The storage and stock in our reservoirs are low. We have had to shut off some of the supplies that we are using because they have been over pumped. The wells are dry, they are at the point where they are pulling saltwater now,” the Minister said.

“A lot of the difficulty the people up in Redman’s are having is simply that there is not enough water in the pipe to create a significant enough pressure for the water to reach the people in Redman’s Village.”

Following the completion of the project, three million gallons of water will be pumped into the water system, and one million gallons will be pumped to the residents of Redman’s Village.

Abrahams noted that although the residents will see a distinct improvement in their service, the increased capacity will leaded to breakages and damages to the mains which will be promptly fixed by the BWA.

“From the time we start to increase that pressure into the system you are going to get some breakages and some damaged mains but we will fix those and reinforce the system so you can get the water that we are pumping in,” he said.

The Minister of Water Resources assured the public that the BWA is exploring all possibilities to ease the plight of residents facing water shortages.

“BWA is exploring every single option to try and bring some relief to the people of Barbados and to augment our supply. We are looking at new boreholes, we are looking at new wells, we are trying to drill in places we have never drilled before trying to find every source of water that there is to exploit.” (KK)