Aged water mains in need of replacement

Government is doing all in its power to ensure that residents who live in the north of the island have constant access to water.

This was made clear by General Manager of the Barbados Water Authority (BWA) Keithroy Halliday, who gave the assurance the issue was being addressed in a multi-pronged approach.

However, Halliday explained that the aging pipes in St Lucy and St Peter had to be replaced as part of a long-term solution to the problem.

He made the comments while speaking before the Standing Finance Committee on the Appropriations Bill, 2022, in Parliament this evening.

Halliday was responding to Member of Parliament for St Peter, Colin Jordan, who queried when the longstanding issues would be resolved.

“What I would say in terms of the action on the ground is that our approach for the resolution of the issues in St Lucy and St Peter, the northern parishes, is really multi-pronged. We have some solutions that we are putting in place at least for the interim or medium-term basis and then we have some solutions that are long-term.

“In any event whether it is medium-term, immediate or long-term, one thing remains very clear and that is that we must pursue the Mains Replacement Programme,” Halliday pointed out.

“In St Lucy and St Peter what we needed to do is to look at dealing with the discoloured water, the replacement of the tanks, the distribution system and in tackling all of that the approach has been multi-pronged.”

He explained that in St Lucy alone, five reservoirs were currently either being repaired or replaced.

Halliday said temporary desalination plants were being installed at Clinketts, Colleton and Hope Road, which will help to boost the water supply to the northern parishes.

“While we can embark actively on replacing the mains, that is a long-term strategy. We will not be able to replace all of the mains in a very short time,” he noted.

Director of Engineering at the BWA, Charles Leslie explained that the aged pipe infrastructure in the northern parishes was one of the oldest on the island.

As a result, he said those pipes were constantly developing bursts resulting in low water pressure and less water being pumped to those northern communities.

“The network and the pipe infrastructure in the north of the island is aged and it is being approached in a phased approach. We are dealing with the replacement of some of the tanks, like at Boscobelle and Half Acre, we are doing replacements there. After those replacements we are going to be looking at the repair of existing infrastructure,” Haynes said.

“What we’ve recognized is that the infrastructure in the north of the island is perhaps older in some instances than some of the other infrastructure and we are experiencing more frequent bursts in some of the areas…sometimes on a daily basis and we have a phased approach where we are looking to replace those mains.” (RB)