Residents feel it’s taking too long to return water to their taps

Some Barbadians living in the country’s rural corridor are not convinced that the Barbados Water Authority (BWA) has been doing all in its power to restore the precious utility.

The communities along the East Coast, Lakes, Belleplaine, Isolation, St Simon’s, Shorey Village, Chalky Mount, and other communities across St Andrew have been without running water for over three weeks.

And, despite assurances that workmen are doing their best on a complicated ruptured main at Cattlewash St Joseph, residents say a lack of direct communication about the nature of the issues has left them feeling neglected.

Director of Engineering at the BWA, Charles Leslie revealed that the ruptured main had finally been relaid, and a process of flushing and sanitising was underway before service could be restored later this week.

“Work at Cattlewash is progressing steadily,” Leslie told Barbados TODAY.

Senator Rommell Springer, one of two Barbados Labour Party people in the constituency on Tuesday said he was present when BWA workmen completed a repair of the ruptured main.

“Hopefully water will be restored to the homes of the residents soon!” Springer said in a Facebook post.

However, Oldwin Skeete, the Democratic Labour Party (DLP)’s candidate for St Andrew, criticised the bits of information on the situation at Cattlewash given the length of time the project is taking to be completed.

“We understand that there can be burst mains, but we think that…it is too serious of a problem to be taking this long,” Skeete told Barbados TODAY.

“Without doubt, I believe that if this was in another location other than the Scotland District, this problem would have been rectified before…The problem is that in the Scotland District, things tend to be a little different, but we are urging the people in the Barbados Water Authority to come to our assistance, make meaningful your effort and make the people of St Andrew feel you are doing the best you can under the circumstances,” the aspiring politician added.

He explained that whilst livestock workers were getting assistance filling their tanks, food crops farmers rely on water supplies from their tanks.

“Water is a basic necessity and the people need the bare minimum at least to survive in this time and you cannot expect that people going through this difficult situation in a pandemic and cannot have running water to supply their needs,” Skeete declared.

At King Street, St Andrew, Paul Corbin queried the position that geographical constraints slowed the process and questioned whether a more swift decision to replace the main may have provided relief sooner.

“I know if it was in a different parish, we all know it would have been solved already. That has a lot to do with it. The rural parishes have no representation, none. It has been too long that the people of St Andrew do not have proper representation. We need some,” said Corbin.

The middle-aged man who runs a shop in the area says the three-week outage has had a serious impact.

“A lot of people can’t come because I have no water to flush the toilets at the shop and the tanker usually comes around when the people are at work. The first time it came around was 1:19 in the morning and that is not acceptable,” the shop owner added.

Audrey Vaughn criticised the level of communication from the authority saying it was ridiculous that they only started getting a regular supply from water tankers after residents ‘made noise’.

“I don’t like to have dirty wares in my house or dirty clothes, so I need my water. I hope that when the water comes back on, the water authority doesn’t send a big bill for us, because I know how it goes.”

Another resident, Whitfield Springer, recalled that Senator Springer passed through the community taking names of livestock farmers who needed a more consistent water supply and since then, the service improved.

“I don’t mind myself struggling to get water for me to cook with, but I mind my cows because the sun is warm. They have to get water because they can’t tell me anything. All they will do is holler,” the farmer complained.
kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb