Two members of the Archer family from Black Rock, St Michael, dropped a bombshell at a town hall meeting held by the Barbados Water Authority (BWA) at St Stephen’s Anglican Church on Monday night.
None of the engineers or other experts had an answer when spokesperson Sandra Archer stated that a section of a new desalination plant being discussed and to be built on Spring Garden, was going to be constructed on a piece of their land which, though acquired nearly 20 years ago, still had not been paid for. She also told the gathering that the family was still being billed thousands of dollars for water and land tax.
The only thing officials from both the BWA and Ionics Fresh Water Inc., which has partnered with Williams Industries to build the plant, could say was that the information was new to them, and they would have to investigate. Minister of Finance and parliamentary representative for the area, Chris Sinckler, who was also in the audience, addressed the gathering and promised to do the same.
Speaking to journalists after the meeting, Sandra said she and her brother Garlon did not want to get contentious, but were simply looking for answers. She said their father had been dealing with the matter with his lawyer, but that “fall off a bit”. Recently, they have been speaking with a 94-year-old aunt who was still receiving water and land tax bills for the property.
“And we know that there was talk about acquiring it and we know, even from just visually looking at where the desalination plant is, that they have taken up some of the land. But we couldn’t quite find out who to talk to as regards if it was acquired. We have received no notification [and] definitely no compensation as a family or anything like that,” she explained.
Archer said Sinckler spoke to them privately after they raised their concern during the meeting.
“He did say that he would look into it, that he would try to find out what has happened. That we’re still getting bills means that the process was not completed fully. If it was . . . we should not be getting a water bill or a land tax bill. So obviously something didn’t quite go through. So he said that he would investigate and let us know,” she reported.
Archer had a picture of a water bill, dated November 2017, to support her claim. She said no money was being paid on the bill and the charge was adding up every month. She was not sure about the balance owed on the land tax bill.
“Each bill is about $29 or so, but it’s now about over $3 000 or so at this point. So obviously, in that there is supposed to be no meter or anything there, that you’re still getting a bill, we thought it very strange that a bill was still coming . . . . That is what piqued our interest in the first place when we visited our great aunt, that she was still getting this bill,” Sandra said. (YB)
