Some St Lucy residents will not be drinking the tap water, no matter what the Barbados Water Authority (BWA) says.
For years, the northern parish has been one of the hardest hit when it comes to water woes, with brown water coming from the taps, when it flowed at all.
During a media conference last week, BWA officials said they did monthly testing of the water in the Alleynedale well and there were no harmful coliform bacteria or heavy metals found, adding the discolouration was caused by silt and was potable, with acting chief executive officer Christopher Mapp declaring he would drink it himself.
However, this has not convinced some, such as Linda Bowen, in Archers Bay, who said she did not even trust the water brought in the BWA tankers.
“I’m not drinking the tap water. I collect water from the trucks that come ‘round and use that to cook and bathe, but I don’t drink that either because if you let it stay long enough, you see a build-up and I don’t know if that is salt or limestone or what, but I don’t want to risk it in case it sends up my blood pressure,” she said.
Bowen said her drinking water came from spending $20 a week in bottled water while the tap water was for washing clothes, or at least it used to be.
“I don’t take chances with it to wash clothes anymore, especially white ones. The water can come out brown at any time, you can wake up early and see it rusty, or it can get rusty at any point in the day,” she said.
In Crab Hill, Tashauna Griffith said she had a one-year-old child and had no intention of giving her discoloured water to drink.
“I got to buy bottled water for her but there’s a lot of people in my house, so it costs about
$37 a case every week. I’m unemployed, so it’s a real strain,” she said.
The young mother said she did not appreciate the BWA advising them to drink the water as it did not seem fit for consumption.
“The BWA telling people to drink it, but they are not drinking it themselves. That water could make somebody sick because it dirty and smells raw. I’m not drinking it,” she said emphatically.
In nearby Grape Hall, Toshika August said they were struggling with discoloured water for years adding it worsened after recent roadworks and pipe maintenance last year.
“You can’t drink it and I would not advise anyone to drink it. It looks like mauby,” she said.
August said her clear water came from the water trucks, which she used for most things. She said she would usually go somewhere else to wash her clothes.
“I had no other water available, so I used the tap water to cook. I thought the heat would destroy anything bad but it sent me straight to the bathroom,” she said.
The upset woman complained the water trucks sometimes passed at unconventional hours, either early in the morning or late at night. She also said, while they were getting a discount on the bill, it did not make up for the inconvenience.
In Content, Sandy Springer, the proprietor of Sandy’s Hideaway, said she did not give her patrons tap water with their alcohol.
“Sometimes customers don’t want to buy water to go with their drinks and some are not nice about it, but as a shopkeeper, I can’t afford to give them that water and then they get sick. So there’s no ‘shop water’ for anyone,” she said.
Not everyone was completely against drinking the discoloured water, as in Archer’s Bay, Patrick Roach said he did what he had to do.
“If I’m out working in the sun and I don’t have access to bottled water, then I drink it from the standpipe; water is essential. That being said, it looks worse than mauby,” he said.
Environmental scientist Dr Ariana Marshall was also in Archer’s Bay and shared her observations. She said the water was adversely affecting people’s health, causing skin irritations, perhaps due to the aggressive measures taken to purify it.
She called on the BWA to reveal the data from the testing. She said the BWA should tell residents not to use the discoloured water until there is a solution. (CA)
