WATER SHORTAGES AND OUTAGES continue to be a source of frustration for many residents across this country, particularly so for those living in rural areas like St Joseph.
We have heard a lot of promises of relief from Minister of Agriculture and Water Resource Management, Dr David Estwick, but some residents are still crying out for lack of water.
Last October, Estwick promised that a fast-track response system would go into effect to ease the situation. At the time, the minister, along with other officials, including general manager of the Barbados Water Authority (BWA), Dr John Mwansa, said community storage tanks would be placed in appropriate areas, while the BWA was immediately obtaining four additional water tankers to help augment the supply.
Then in January, the minister made another announcement. He rolled out short, medium and long-term initiatives that he said would address the water issues affecting the northern and eastern parts of the island, namely St Lucy, St Peter, St Andrew, St Joseph, St Thomas and St John.
At the time, he also announced the St Philip Water Augmentation Project, the addition of eight water tankers to the current fleet, and installation of two packaged desalination plants to ease the distress of residents.
While we have no doubt that the minister and other water officials have been working tirelessly to ensure there is a flow of water to rural residents, there is a desperate need for those who are still water-starved to be constantly updated.
In the last SUNDAY SUN some residents in St Joseph reported that water was still not flowing from their taps. Some of them believed they had been forgotten.
We cannot afford to have a situation where some residents in that parish are having access while others are still facing dried taps on a daily basis, leaving them unable to complete simply chores like cooking and bathing.
Mr Minister, you need to come out and update Barbadians on the status of the desalination plants which were promised, as well as the other work that was detailed.
Here again are some of the plans which were highlighted at a press conference back in January.
1. The Barbados Water Authority has put in an order for eight additional water tankers to provide potable water for residents of St Joseph, St Andrew and St John.
2. The tankers will take the BWA complement to 13, and they should be in Barbados in about two months.
3. The BWA is rehabilitating a well at Groves in St George aimed at providing an additional 500 000 gallons of water to the Golden Ridge/Castle Grant systems which supply the northern parishes.
4. The BWA has also completed a new pumping station at the Lazaretto, Black Rock, St Michael, which allows it to push desalinated water down the West Coast into the St Peter system, to get water to St Peter and St Lucy until the completion of the northern upgrade project which was started under a previous administration.
5. The St Philip Water Augmentation Project to find additional water to alleviate shortages in the south of Barbados will be commissioned next Wednesday, allowing the BWA access to an additional 3.5 million gallons of water per day, some of which will be pushed to St Joseph, via Bowmanston in St John.
Mr Minister, we encourage you to revisit these promises listed above to see which initiatives were completed and which are yet to be undertaken.
After that checklist is done, we then implore you to come out and update the affected residents who are dealing with the daily frustrations and inconvenience of not getting water.