WHAT, BETWEEN THE FED-UP PUBLIC, the Press and politicians, the poor folks at the Barbados Water Authority (BWA) can hardly catch a break these days.
Dry taps or intermittent water outages, mainly in the northern, central and eastern areas, have led to a chorus of calls for the heads of the BWA management.
It appears bosses at the state-run utility responsible for managing, allocating and monitoring water resources with a view to ensuring their best development, utilisation, conservation and protection in the public interest, are mostly men who are first – and foremost – engineers. Do they possess the critical managerial skills to fully discharge their responsibilities?
What it boils down to is that the BWA – not ignoring the mantra that Barbados is a water scarce country, which is repeated ad nauseam – has been, and is being, poorly managed.
Thing is, despite the abject failure of the current crop of engineer/managers, the core of the BWA’s problems is not new and certainly did not start with them.
Parenthetically, it is unfortunate that these public officers have been forced into the national consciousness as the face of the wearying water woes, while, absent the overweeningly ambitious, none of those politicians directly responsible for management of the sector and the overall environment has stepped forward to speak to the long-suffering residents in places like St Joseph, St John and St Thomas.
It almost goes without saying that nobody voted for those miscast public officers bearing the brunt of the public’s anger and frustration, but they did so for MPs of the ruling party who have a duty and responsibility to frontally attack their troubles.
This space does not lend itself to a recital of the by now well publicised difficulties experienced daily by people who can’t get water, but it can put on the record the context in which the water battle is being fought.
Study after study and report after report, some going back decades, have been available to successive administrations, highlighting the chronic problem with the management of the water supply, which is the crux of the issue.
Engineer Dr John Mwanza, who like so many other technocrats, finds himself in an acting role as general manager of the BWA, was apparently sent out to face the baying public and the Press.
His message especially to the water-starved people of St Joseph? While we will provide some temporary relief, get accustomed to dry taps.
“Unfortunately, at this point, with a two million gallon per day reduction in supply, we cannot guarantee some immediate relief,” Mwanza said. “What we can provide is the temporary relief through an improvement in the supply of water through the tanker services and community water tanks as well as the expedition of the implementation of the water augmentation in Sweet Vale (St George) to bring those wells into supply as quickly as possible as well as one at Groves.”
This painful attempt at crisis control masks the real issue of the abysmally inefficient management of the water resources and potable water delivery over the years while erecting multimillion-dollar edifices seemingly for reasons other than providing Barbadians with a ready and sustainable supply.
And it cannot be for the want of credible and tried and tested recommendations that have been offered by local and international agencies.
Implementation deficit, you say?
But do we even have a National Water Policy/Plan? Has any progress been made since the draft was prepared in 2002?
It is clear from the people’s anguished cries that water demand is the priority issue right now. But can we meet it?
A 1997 BWA study concluded that the demand exceeded the available resource from 22 public wells.
The study suggested by this year, 2016, annual demand could reach 89.4 million cubic metres (Mm) of which BWA would produce 64.5 Mm and the balance would be from some of the 111, mainly for irrigation, private wells.
This amount, it added, included an allowance for leakage at an estimated level of 60 per cent of domestic consumption.
Question is: do we have the political will to change the way water is managed?
Albert Brandford is an independent political correspondent. Email: albertbrandford@nationnews.com