SINCE I AM fast reaching retirement age I must be extremely careful in suggesting that anyone is too old to do a particular job, but in this case I will. Government needs to replace 80-year-old Dr Atlee Brathwaite as chairman of the Barbados Water Authority.
It is just not right that Dr Brathwaite should enjoy the sweets of the office as an executive chairman, and the comfort of the new BWA castle in the Pine, while across the country from St Lucy to St John and St Philip residents struggle to take a shower, feed their families and their animals or carry on the businesses through which they pay their bills.
And while the Freundel Stuart Cabinet is at it, it should either fire acting general manager John Mwanza or, perhaps, return him to the engineering post he held before his elevation, because though it appears he has been outstanding as a hydrogeologist, if what is happening with water distribution today can be used as a reasonable measure, he has been a dismal failure as an administrator.
Inept leadership
Barbadians have put up with declines and cutbacks in many public services and have accepted them, to a large extent as direct results of the recession and consequently Government’s revenue shortages. But it would be hard for anyone to convince me that the suffering being experienced by people in Chimborazo, Parks Road, Bissex Housing Area, Lammings and elsewhere has resulted from anything but inept leadership.
Let’s assume, as we are being told, that a part of the problem is that the pumps at Bowmanston Station in St John are pulling in silt and clogging. Well, I would accept that and the continued water outages if the person responsible was my gardener, but we employ too many high-priced technical people at the BWA for them not to be able to find a solution.
Is there no way to adjust the pumps? To raise the level at which they are collecting water? To divert water from other areas of the island? To shut off and resume pumping at prescribed periods to allow reservoirs to fill up?
How on earth can a community be without water for three to four weeks and in other areas residents are replacing tap washers and pressure valves because the pressure is so high in the mains?
Then again, let’s assume that Brathwaite, Mwanza and the bucketload of engineers at BWA can’t reasonably do anything about the water flowing through the mains – or more correctly, not flowing. You mean to tell me they can’t even manage the distribution of water to the affected communities utilising tankers.
But I may know the reason why: I’m told the water tanker services are managed by engineers as well. There we go again, scientists doing administrative work!
Just before Christmas, Barbadians living in a significant portion of the country were complaining profusely because their taps were dry, the community water tanks were empty and they could not take care of critical household chores. But guess what? somebody with authority at the BWA pulled a tanker driver off the road to put him to drive a dump truck so material could be carted to a location where they needed a hole filled.
You don’t think that person should have been given a nice bonus cheque and even a national medal on Christmas Day for A-class management?
This is the eve of 2016 and would you believe the BWA does not even have its tanker trucks equipped with a GPS system so it can properly map and manage the routes and distribution of water to households and businesses when the mains are dry?
By my reckoning it gets worse. I’m told the BWA has augmented its customer service staff to ensure that the phones are answered when angry customers call to complain they have no water. Sounds great — on the face of it. But St Joseph, St Peter or St Philip residents who are clamouring for a bath other than from a bucket don’t want calls answered, they want water so they don’t have to make the calls in the first place. Deploy the resources to fix the problem Dr Brathwaite, not to smooth over the situation when people call.
When people who are given certain national responsibilities understand and appreciate where failure to meet those duties impact negatively on others, they are quick to formulate and implement contingencies. So why are farmers complaining their animals are dying of thirst when the Barbados Fire Service would willingly deploy its tenders to top up the farmers’ tanks if requested by the BWA? Mr Mwanza, in case you don’t know it, the emergency number for the fire service is 311.
Water tankers
The authority complains it does not have enough water tankers to service all communities adequately, so are there any private entities with tankers that are up to standard to be temporarily deployed to augment the BWA’s fleet?
But wait, Dr Brathwaite is also the big boss in the sugar industry, isn’t he? Is there not a fleet of tankers used to transport molasses from the factory to the bulk facility at the port? As far as I know molasses is clean and can be consumed by humans, so can these tankers be cleaned and temporarily pressed into service?
Then again, I could be asking for too much because the country is about to record its worst sugar harvest in centuries, on top of this year’s which was the worst then, on top of last year’s which was the worst then, on top of . . . You get the picture.
Thousands of Barbadians may be fuming about dry taps and poor backup service by BWA water tankers, but as far as I am concerned the real problem is poor management of the BWA.
On top of all that they compound it with an approach to communications that is nothing short of insulting. Not a word to Barbadians from the chairman, nothing from the general manager. Not an official can be seen in the affected areas offering an explanation to residents. Not a fellow behaves like he is accountable. Maybe they aren’t.
And here’s something else that bothers me. One very reliable source at the authority, someone in whom I have the greatest trust, tells me the minister with responsibility for water resource development, Dr David Estwick, has been trying really hard – talking, writing, screaming, begging, directing and still we have this situation. Minister Estwick is no pushover, so what’s going on here?
Come on, Mr Minister, demonstrate why people call you “The Pitbull”. Suffering Bajans require that level of tenacity from you to get this problem resolved.
We also need you to tell us whether you believe the BWA board is worthy of its hire, given this ongoing water fiasco. Should Barbadians retain confidence in Henry Barrow, Peterkin Brome, Lennox Chandler, Haldine Holder, Stedson Jackman, Marjorie Lashley, Hugh Smith, Dr Kenneth George, Frank Thornhill and Ayanna Young-Marshall as members of the board of the BWA under these circumstances?
If ever there was an occurrence fit to be called a national embarrassment this would be it.