BADMC obtains injunction over Three Houses Spring

The state-run Barbados Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (BADMC) has secured a High Court injunction against a father-and-son farming family business on lands surrounding the protected Three Houses Spring in St Philip — one of the island’s oldest continuously used spring in the country.

The injunction, granted pending a substantive hearing later this year, follows allegations of pollution and the diversion of the stream’s natural flow.

Three defendants — PJ Holdings Limited, John Marshall and Paul Marshall — were recently ordered by Justice Michelle Weekes to refrain from diverting, obstructing or interfering with the natural flow of Three Houses Spring; and from discharging or permitting the discharge of effluent, wastewater or other pollutants into the spring.

They were also ordered not to undertake any earthworks, embankments or constructions that alter or impede the natural course of the spring; or to divert, discharge or permit the discharge of animal effluent, wastewater or any other contaminant into the spring, pending determination of the substantive claim or further order of the court.

The defendants were also directed to take all reasonable steps to remove any embankments, earthworks, obstructions or diversions erected by, or on their behalf, on the lands at Three Houses that are impeding the natural flow of the spring, and to immediately restore the flow of the spring to its natural course.

Buttressed by Sections 5, 6 and 7 of the 2023 Three Houses Spring (Management and Control) Act, Justice Weekes also granted the BADMC and its duly authorised officers and agents liberty to enter the defendants’ lands, with police assistance if necessary to inspect, monitor and record the spring’s flow and water quality.

The state farming enterprise may also carry out remedial, abatement and restoration works required to secure the spring’s natural flow and prevent further pollution.

It is also authorised to install such monitoring and flow-management devices as are reasonably required for protection of the spring, pending determination of the substantive claim.

“The intended claimant may take any necessary measures during such inspection to prevent ongoing pollution and to preserve the spring in its natural state,” Justice Weekes ruled.

Attorney for the BADMC Liesel Weekes SC told Barbados TODAY on Friday that the corporation had been consistently checking water quality at the ancient stream.

“We were waiting on the Ministry of Health to put some recommendations in writing to the owners, against whom the BADMC had acted, to ensure that the stream was not being contaminated,” Weekes said.

When contacted, Paul Marshall told Barbados TODAY the claims against him, his father and their business were groundless.

“Whatever they have said about the dispute, there is nothing to justify what they have said. The one thing that they wanted changed was done,” he said.

“There was a section under my bridge; a piece of concrete they wanted dug down, and that was dug down. But, as I told them then and I told them now, that has been dug down and there has not been any increase in the level or volume of water in the stream.”

“Unfortunately,” the younger Marshall added, “with it being so dry, and so many farmers downstream of me taking water, obviously, even me sometimes, I don’t get water.”

The court has also warned the Marshalls that, if they disobey the order, they may be held in contempt of court and may be liable to imprisonment, sequestration of assets or other sanctions.

The Three Houses Spring has been in continuous use since the days of slavery three centuries ago.

In 2023, lawmakers upgraded the colonial-era legislation from 1713 to manage and protect the spring, giving the BADMC oversight to prevent water obstruction and penalising polluters with fines up to $25 000 or two years in prison. 

(EJ)