Gov’t pumping millions into major project to resolve water woes

Government is pumping millions into a major project to resolve the water woes of residents of rural parishes.

The Barbados Water Authority (BWA) is moving ahead with the project to augment the water supply in the water-starved sections of St Andrew, St Thomas, St John and St Joseph.

According to the BWA, in order to achieve this, infrastructural upgrades are required to move the water from the Vineyard Reservoir in St Philip to Golden Ridge in St George via Mount Pleasant St John.

Over the next five months, the BWA team in conjunction with six sub-contractors will therefore be carrying out works, including the construction of a Booster Station at Vineyard adjacent to the existing Vineyard Reservoir, the laying of 2.7 km of 16-inch mains from Vineyard to Mount Pleasant, the construction of a Reservoir and Booster Station at Mount Pleasant and the laying of additional 4.6 km of 16-inch mains from Mount Pleasant to Eastmont, St John.

It is anticipated that this infrastructure will move approximately one and a half million gallons of water per day from Vineyard into St John. The source of the water into Vineyard will be from Groves.

Minister of Transport, Works and Water Resources Ian Gooding-Edghill, who toured the Vineyard project on Saturday with other Ministry and BWA officials, told members of the media that Government is fully committed to the water works being carried out in the two parishes and stressed that BWA has done an outstanding job in putting together required resources and the project team necessary to facilitate the works seen on the tour.

“You would have seen and heard earlier that we would have commenced 7.3 kilometers of mains replacements throughout this constituency. But I also want to advise you that the Government of Barbados, through funding from the Caribbean Development Bank also negotiated a $14.8 million facility to also help with mains replacement within this constituency of St John.

“I must tell you that at the conclusion of the mains process, the Barbados Water Authority as the executing agency, would have spent in excess of 23 .8 million dollars on the mains replacement programme in St John. In other words, the residents of St John will benefit from perhaps having the most modern mains laying programme and mains facility within the parish. We are spending the money here because it is going to have a reach all the way through to St Joseph, right through to St Thomas and St Andrew. The people of St John and St Joseph will have better water access as a result of the significant capital expenditure that will be made available in this area,” Edghill said.

Member of Parliament for St John and Minister in the Ministry of Water Resources Charles Griffith who noted that the water problems in St John and other rural areas have been severe in recent years, told the residents of that parish that he is fully aware that in short order, these issues will be resolved, noting that this particularly will cost government over $10 million.

However, Griffith assured that issues with water outages will not only be fixed in St John, St Joseph and the eastern corridor, but noted that all water concerns across the country will be addressed.

“So, there is a new push. My phone is constantly blowing up with problems in terms of leaks, in terms of persons not having water and we understand the fractured nature that was there before. I am saying that the same way you would have seen today that we are fusing those pipes together, we are going to fix the fractures that are happening as it relates to the water resources,” Griffiths said.

Griffith acknowledged that BWA has done extensive work in St John, as it relates to extensive mains replacement in various areas, in an effort to resolve the pressing water issues. (AH)