All apologies. That’s what the Barbados Water Authority’s (BWA) general manager is offering to those affected by the sewage crisis on the South Coast and to Barbadians in general as he begged the country to “rally round” the BWA.
Keithroy Halliday’s apologies come in the wake of Chicken Barn having to close its South Coast restaurant until further notice as a result of the constant overflows of sewage onto the Worthing, Christ Church property.
Flanked by the manager of the BWA’s Waste Water Recovery Programme, Patricia Inniss, and director of engineering Charles Leslie, Halliday was speaking at a press conference at the South Coast Sewage Treatment Plant on Sunday afternoon.
“I would like to comment not just to Chicken Barn, not just to the residents and business community in that catchment area but to Barbados on the whole. Regardless of blame, regardless of liability, we are empathetic and the situation is certainly regrettable,” he said.
“If it has not yet been said, the Barbados Water Authority at least wants to express their regret and to say we are sorry,” he added.
“We are sorry to the national community that we were not able to respond in a better time frame given the realities we were faced with.
“Whether justified or not, at the end of the day, we appreciate and understand the difficulties that most workers and most residents have to face on a daily basis in that particular area.”
Halliday said the BWA crews had been working tirelessly, driven by “national pride”, to try to bring a resolution to what he called a “national crisis”.
And he has asked for Barbadians to be patient with them and rally round the BWA.
“We want to say to everyone that we still need your patience. We still need for you to work with us. We still need for you to rally around the Barbados Water Authority as we try to make this right, recognising that there are no quick fixes.”
Halliday said the BWA was hopeful it could bring some relief and a return to normalcy in the short term with a view to correcting it, once and for all, eventually.
Meanwhile, Inniss, described the sewage overflows onto Chicken Barn as unfortunate.
However, she said the manhole from which the sewage was seeping was not one of the BWA’s but belonged to Chicken Barn and was not bolted down “so that there is the rising of the manhole when the lines are charged”.
She said the BWA was in discussion with the management of Chicken Barn to be able to install a back flow preventer which would alleviate the problem. That back flow preventer had been on order for two months now.
She added that the Chicken Barn property was, however, sanitised daily, as were other businesses affected by sewage overflows.
On Saturday, management at Chicken Barn closed the Worthing outlet until further notice. (HLE)