Sliding land worsens repair job on Cattlewash main leaving hundreds of dry taps

A burst main sunk in slipping land will leave parts of St Andrew and St Joseph without running water for several days, the Barbados Water Authority (BWA)  said Tuesday.

Severe land slippage in the area of the broken 10-inch main at Cattlewash, St Joseph is being blamed for the slow repairs.

BWA Site Manager Anderson Sealy told Barbados TODAY the wet sand and clay soil has made the fix much more difficult.

He said: “We have some challenges with the excavating in terms of stuff falling in, so we are working to source some materials and we are thinking about the safety of the workers before we do anything.”

Sealy explained that the main was sunk 20 feet deep but the more they dug the more the land slipped.

“The collapsing of the materials is causing some problems; the road is starting to relax,” he said. “This road is built on mud and sand and anytime you get water, if you excavate under it, could collapse on you. We have some guys bringing down the planks to secure the area and after that, we will start the digging.”

But as the BWA seeks to find a fix, hundreds of residents in parts of St Andrew and St Joseph, anxiously await a solution.

Chalky Mount resident Angela told Barbados TODAY: “It is so ridiculous it is not good enough in the 21st century with so much social media available for you not to say what is going on, we have ears we can hear and we would like to know what is going on. It is not good enough we all pay our water bill.”

A check revealed that the BWA posted a 90-second video “update” of the burst mains repair job on its Facebook page on Monday evening at 7.40.

Said Angela: “It is that dread, in this heat and COVID how can you sanitize without water.”

Shopkeeper Jennifer Leacock explained that the water had stopped flowing from about 9 a.m. on Saturday.

Leacock said: “If my tanks run empty then it will definitely affect me I might have to shut the shop and I would hope that don’t happen, I am hoping for the best.”

Over in Belleplaine, one resident, Stephen, told Barbados TODAY: “This has affected me severely, the problem for me right now is bathing. I have to resort to dipping water out of buckets and I am not prepared for the long haul but there isn’t much I could do.”

But he said the BWA was doing a good job with the water tanker service.

“The service from the tankers is good that part I can say, listening to the radio, I understand the problem,” he said. kobiebroomes@barbadostoday.bb