KINGSTOWN, St Vincent – The Central Water and Sewerage Authority’s (CWSA) is urging consumers to pray for at least two days of rain per week for the next few weeks as the island deals with the drought situation.
CWSA says the water supply is at 60 or 70 per cent capacity and that while most residents in the northern part of the island are unaffected, in terms of their water supply, the drought is affecting 50 per cent of its customers to the point that they are without water for most of the day.
CSWA has since introduced a water restriction policy to ease the situation and has warned the public, that under the law, it has the power to immediately disconnect any customers who use its supply of water for activities such as watering lawns, farms, recreational fields and filling swimming pools.
CWSA chief executive officer, Garth Saunders, said that for the first four months of the year, all five of the CWSA’s major water systems in St. Vincent have, on average, experienced rainfall amounts totalling 40 per cent below the 10-year average.
“Rainfall for April was 60 per cent below the average monthly figure, while rainfall in May fell from 248mm in 2019 to just 48 mm in 2020,” Saunders said, adding that since January, there has been a 40 per cent reduction in rainfall, and since May there has been a significant fall off from that already lower amount.
Rainfall, he noted, translates directly to river flow and water availability for the CWSA, which has seen a 35 per cent reduction in capacity on its five water collection and distribution systems.
“It means that we have devised a plan, and we have done so, where we are trying to ensure that our customers get water, at some point, for at least six hours during a 24-hour period,” Saunders said, referring to the water rationing that has been taking place over the past few weeks.
Saunders said that the CWSA would try as much it can to explain when it will be making the changes, but that is not always possible because of the unpredictability of the demand. He did guarantee everyone would get water.
He said that CWSA wants customers to understand that when they have water at their premise they should try their best to store it “so you can tide over the period that you won’t have any water”.
Regional forecasters have said that the region could expect to see some relief from the hot, dry conditions by the end of June. (CMC)
