More water disruptions coming as BWA undertakes additional repairs

People living and working in Barbados’ urban corridor have been warned to brace for water supply disruptions beyond the emergency repairs currently underway at the Belle Pumping Station.

General Manager of the Barbados Water Authority (BWA) Keithroy Halliday told Barbados TODAY that critical infrastructure at the pumping station was corroding and further repairs would be needed sooner rather than later.

He warned that businesses and industrial enterprises, in particular, urgently need to invest in supplementary sources of water following this week’s outages that are said to have affected at least one South Coast hotel.

Workmen from the state-owned water company and private contractors have been repairing the substructure that supports the Belle Pumping Station for the last five days.

In a statement on Wednesday evening, BWA Director of Engineering Charles Leslie said crews would complete work by 8 p.m. on three pumps that failed on April 12 and 13, and the station would be able to return to regular capacity.

“The crews then will continue to work on the remainder of the structure for the two other pumps and we will continue to cut those old beams out and replace them by the end of [Wednesday] and then tomorrow, Thursday, we will be looking at the replacement of those two old beams,” said Leslie.

“Once those two beams have been replaced, the pumps that are supported by them will be rested back on the supports and the inspection will be done on them and, once everything is okay, the station will have an installed capacity of 13 million gallons. We will run that for approximately two days, for as long as is necessary, but then we bring the station back down to its normal operating capacity which is nine to ten million gallons per day,” he added.

However, in an interview, Halliday explained that once the emergency work was finished, the BWA would begin another phase of critical work on the over 100-year-old system at the Belle.

“The sections that we are changing out now are the sections that we consider to be the worst corroded and we did not want to continue to place any great reliance on them,” Halliday told Barbados TODAY.

“But it will be done in phases and the intention really is to be able to give [customers] enough time in terms of notice. This one, we had to move very quickly on so we were not able to give as much notice as we would have wanted to. But as we move forward, we will make sure that everyone is advised long in advance and give them enough time to prepare themselves,” he promised.

Halliday explained that the deteriorating infrastructure at the pumping stations was not exclusive to the Belle. He mentioned that work at the Hampton and New Market pumping stations is also critical, but the Belle was a matter of urgency.

“We will have to do additional work and we want to make sure that following these repair activities, everyone moves aggressively to ensure they have greater provisions for the storage of water, and this is not something that will be wasted because you will need it for any eventuality,” Halliday explained.

“You need it for disruptions generally, you will need it for hurricanes, so this has to become part of our daily lives.”

The BWA General Manager said he was concerned that not enough was being done on the part of businesses to shore up their supply, adding that many complain about inadequate space or insufficient funds.

“In 2022, we are saying to you, you have to take stock and recognise that there are disruptions that will occur outside of our control. If as a business you are making an investment, whether it is a million dollars, $5 million or $20 million, then spending $5 000, $10 000 or $20 000 to safeguard that investment as an insurance policy simply makes sense,” said Halliday.

“So, we have to find solutions to store water, we have to find ways to avert what is happening right now, in several instances, simply because we have not been able to store water. So our plea remains great and large and not just to residential, but to commercial and industrial enterprises as well,” he added.

Meanwhile, Leslie thanked customers for their patience over the last five days as the BWA worked on the issues at the Belle. kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb