Water resources stretched; grant funding sought for BWA improvements

Officials are hoping that the Bridgetown Sewage Treatment Plant will be able to produce water safe enough to be used for groundwater return and irrigation. But financing from the Green Climate Fund (GCF) would be needed to make the project a reality.

At present, the treatment plant serves only as a secondary plant, which allows the treated water to only be reused for a few purposes.

“The whole intent of the upgrade to the Bridgetown plant is to be able to reuse the treated wastewater for irrigation and groundwater return and in combination with the proposed upgrade to the South Coast Sewage Treatment Plant, we will have about ten per cent of the current freshwater that is being used for non-potable usage being covered by reclaimed water,” said Dr John Mwansa, Technical Advisor to the Barbados Water Authority Board during a tour of the plant this morning.

Present at the tour was Executive Director of the Green Climate Fund (GCF), Dr Yannick Glemarec, along with several other officials including Minister in the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Investment Marsha Caddle, Minister of Maritime Affairs and the Blue Economy Kirk Humphrey and Minister in the Ministry of Water Resources Charles Griffith.

Dr Mwansa pointed out that Barbados had very limited capacity in terms of water augmentation and as a water-scarce country it only had the options of reused treated wastewater or desalination.

He said the combination of the island’s aging infrastructure, the high demand for water and the projected impacts of climate change, Barbados’ resources were “stretched”.

Advisor to Government Dr Hugh Sealy, who was also present on the tour, said financing from the GCF would go a long way in helping the treatment plant provide thousands of gallons of additional water to Barbadians.

“Now we’ve come to the GCF and asked for money to help us upgrade this plant. We’ve been using millions of gallons a day…this is a 7000 cubic metre per day plant. The plant on the South Coast is a 9000 cubic metre per day plant so you add the two together and you are about 10 per cent of our overall water usage, so we could be putting 10 per cent back in and perhaps displacing that potable water that we’ve been using for irrigation which is vital for us to move forward,” Dr Sealy said.

“So under this project that we’re hoping that we will get the grant funding from you, we will upgrade this from secondary to tertiary, which means we make sure the water is absolutely clean for use. Once we’ve got that work to the stage where it is fit for purpose we now have to move it to where it can be used. A big proportion of the grant funding that we’ve been asking for is to get that water from here now to where it is needed,” he told Dr Glemarec.
(RB)