SEVERAL businesses along the south coast were forced to close their doors or alter their operations because of a water shortage over two days.
Linda Lampkin, general manager of Coconut Court Beach Hotel, said: “The situation has been badly handled. The Barbados Tourism Authority, The Barbados Hotel and Tourism Authority and the Barbados Water Authority [BWA] have been pathetic. They just left us on our own.”
“The biggest problem is that we did not have adequate communication from the BWA. The information was not forthcoming and we could not properly communicate the situation to guests who became frustrated.
“When the water supply stopped we told the guests it would be minimal and water would be back in a couple hours, but 24 hours after we still had no information to give the guests.”
Lampkin said that yesterday at about 4 p.m the BWA informed the hotel that the problem was corrected, but it would be several hours before the water supply was “back on target and flowing through pipe.”
He was concerned that the hotel had to take the blame from the guests because it did not have any answers to queries on when service would be restored.
Lampkin said: “We were without water since 8 a.m yesterday. The five-floor hotel was experiencing no water flow on the top floor with a mere trickle on the ground floor.
With only one room vacant, the hotel management was forced to use the pool water to flush toilets and had to provide guests with bottled water.
Worthing Court Hotel was reportedly without water from early Thursday. There was low water pressure since 10 a.m.
Concern was raised that no water tanks were dispatched to the hotel and when it contacted the BWA no one was able to give an update on the progress of the repairs.
At the Savannah Hotel, a manager said it had started using its reserves but was not sure how long they would last.
Scotia Bank at Coconut Walk Hastings closed its doors to customers during the afternoon.
Douglas Best, general manager of TGI Friday Restaurants, said: “We have no supply from the BWA but we have four water storage tanks.
“The water supply could last until Sunday but hopefully the problem could be resolved by tomorrow and the tanks could be replenished throughout the night.” (LK)
