Thanks to a $90 million loan from the Green Climate Fund, thousands of people will soon be provided with new water conservation facilities.
The Barbados Water Authority’s (BWA) on Friday announced that the boost to its personal tank programme which was launched in 2017 has meant that more people can be included in the initiative.
Speaking to the media at a press conference at the BWA’s Pine, St Michael headquarters, head of the project management office Shelley Parris said the programme, which falls under the authority’s Water Sector Resilience Nexus for Sustainability project, is being executed in collaboration with the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre. Some 2 489 systems are to be made available.
Nine tank systems to be used for potable water are to be erected at polyclinics and one at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. One hundred and twenty-one farms and 20 community centres are to be retrofitted with rainwater harvesting systems while 16 potable water tanks and 22 rainwater harvesting systems will be installed at primary and secondary schools. Some 1 500 potable tanks will be installed at vulnerable households and 800 homes will receive rainwater harvesting systems.
Work started last March and to date, 1 115 systems – 681 potable tanks and 434 rainwater harvesting systems – have been installed in every parish except Christ Church, St Michael and St Joseph.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport, Works and Water Resources Santia Bradshaw said the programme was important as it increased the resilience of vulnerable families, improved residential resilience in the advent of a natural disaster and increased water security.
She said these systems had the capacity to store one million gallons of water combined.
General Manager of the BWA Keithroy Halliday said that the authority was only able to facilitate residents in critical need. Those with the wherewithal to purchase and install storage tanks should do so, he added.
He also said that 120 kilometres of mains across the island needed to be replaced to cut down on leaks, bursts and water discolouration. However, he said the BWA was financially strapped.
As it relates to road reinstatement following BWA projects, he said monetary challenges was the main reason the roads took so long to be restored, adding that the authority required $10 million for some of the backlog.
(SZB)
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