BWA: Poor access roads to blame for farm project water woes

Bad access roads to farmers at Mount Poyer, St Lucy are hampering efforts to truck in water to irrigate their crops, the Barbados Water Authority has confirmed.

Earlier this week, several members of the farm project created by the government’s Farmers’ Empowerment and Enfranchisement Drive (FEED) complained to Barbados TODAY that the poor state of the cart roads leading to their plots prevents water tankers from reaching them to fill their tanks. Some farmers who operated near the main road also said their tanks were still not being filled.

The FEED programme is run by the state-owned Barbados Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (BADMC).

The BWA said: “There are some challenges with the cart roads in Mount Poyer, St Lucy which hamper the delivery of water by the BWA to some of the farmers from time to time. This situation has been brought to the attention of BADMC on several occasions but has not yet been resolved.”

“The current arrangements are that BADMC staff would let the BWA know which tank(s) need to be filled and where they are located. BWA tanker personnel will then be able to have those tanks filled under their advice. Farmers are to communicate to the BADMC when they want water and then BADMC will pass on the information on to the BWA. This has been the methodology used from the time the project started.”

The BWA stressed that it was doing all that it could to supply water as it worked in conjunction with BADMC.

Mount Poyer, one of the island’s latest FEED projects, has more than 60 one-acre lots of land available with a numbered 1 200-gallon tank for each acre.

Initially, three BWA tankers – two with a capacity of 5 200 gallons and one with 5 600 gallons – supplied the area with water.

But some of the trucks would be out of commission from time to time due to mechanical problems and other issues involving the bad roads they traversed to access tanks, further slowing down the water supply for crops, Barbados TODAY has learned.

At another FEED district – Project Phoenix at Wakefield St John – farmers said they were also struggling with bad roads that inhibit water tanker access to their plots.

On Monday, Prime Minister Mia Mottley met with the St John farmers, a day after they called for her intervention, and announced a series of initiatives that were in the pipeline to fix the roads and other problems there.
(BT)