Several bursts along a 12-inch main are responsible for the water outages in several St Philip and St George districts.
Yesterday, several residents from Ebenezer and Sunbury Tenantry in St Philip complained to Barbados TODAY that they had been without water since Monday.
The water outage led to the closure for the week, of Legacy Preparatory, a private primary school.
Residents had also accused the BWA of failing to communicate with them.
In a statement issued today, the Barbados Water Authority’s (BWA) marketing officer Yvette Harris-Griffith explained that crews were attempting to repair another burst.
“The Barbados Water Authority wishes to advise residents of some parts of St. Philip and St. George currently impacted by a water outage today Friday, November 20, that its crews are investigating a suspected burst on the 12-inch main which supplies the districts of Brereton, Ebenezer, Windsor, Campaign Castle, Edgecumbe and the immediate surrounding areas. Should the investigations point to yet another rupture on this main, its repair will be addressed as expeditiously as possible,” the statement said.
Harris-Griffith explained that over the course of the past few days, the BWA would have been challenged to respond to several bursts on a 12-inch main in St. Philip.
She said on Tuesday, a burst was reported on a main in Edgecumbe, St. Philip which would have affected customers in the same areas. Harris-Griffith said while that repair was completed by evening on the same day, another burst was discovered in a different location on the same main the following day.
“The affected areas were the same. Once again, repairs were completed by evening on the very Wednesday. The same situation recurred on Thursday, November 19th and repairs were again completed by late Thursday evening.
“In all three cases, because a number of bursts had occurred on the same main, the same catchment areas would have been impacted. On each of these occasions, as is the norm, the BWA would have alerted the public via its social media pages about the outage within the list of daily outages its crews were addressing and the districts that may be impacted,” the statement further added.
She said a water tanker would have been dispatched to the affected areas as a temporary measure.
Speaking with regards to the private school, Harris-Griffith apologized for the apparent lack of communication.
“The Legacy Preparatory School happens to be located in the catchment area that was impacted by this unfortunate series of bursts sustained on this large main. When it comes to the loss of water supply to areas that may include a school, the BWA maintains very regular and good dialogue with the Ministry of Education and officials at the various schools directly. Any miscommunication or lack of communication with this particular school impacted by this series of bursts is deeply regretted,” she said.
