Confronting St Lucy residents’ long-running brown water woes head-on, Deputy Prime Minister Santia Bradshaw on Wednesday acknowledged deep public frustration but insisted the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) administration had deliberately laid the foundation for permanent infrastructure fixes and now needed the mandate to complete the work.

Bradshaw was addressing a large, red-clad crowd at Checker Hall playing field, St Lucy, where she took to the platform during the Barbados Labour Party’s Errol Barrow Day celebrations, joining senior party figures in rallying support for incumbent Member of Parliament Peter Phillips ahead of the February 11 General Election.

Speaking to residents affected by unreliable water supply, repeated pipe breaks and discoloured water, Bradshaw said Government made a conscious decision to move away from temporary fixes and instead invest heavily in replacing ageing infrastructure across rural parishes.

“So that instead of you having to complain and say you can’t wash your wet clothes because the water broke, or that you can’t drink the water and you’ve got to get bottles of water, or that you’re tired of the BWA having to bring water tanks into your communities to have to fetch water, we have taken it on ourselves in this Government to make sure that we invest the monies that we have into the people of the rural parishes to make sure that we can bring an end to brown water,” she told the crowd.

Bradshaw openly acknowledged that progress did not always come at the speed residents wanted, admitting that even ministers felt the strain of public dissatisfaction.

“Now do we get it right all the time? Do we always get people to move at the pace that you would like? I stand here tonight and tell you that sometimes it is difficult for us as well,” she said.

“We feel Peter’s pain, we feel the pain of the people in the rural communities, but it does not stop this Barbados Labour Party administration from planning, from looking ahead, and from seeing how we can put the monies that we make from tourism and international business back into developing the infrastructure of this country”.

“The people of St Lucy must recognise that in St Thomas, when we came to office, we were able to address the infrastructure there. We were able to go to St Joseph and deal with the infrastructure there as well,” Bradshaw said, while stressing that the administration could not repair every parish simultaneously.

“You cannot build a house and put it on the roof if you don’t lay a foundation. You can’t come with your siding, you can’t put on your roof, you can’t put up your boards unless you first lay the foundation,” she said.

Turning to road conditions in St Lucy, Bradshaw said immediate relief measures were also being rolled out alongside longer-term reconstruction.

“We have invested in six four-hole patchers and we will roll those out by the end of this month to alleviate some of the hardship that people are experiencing with their vehicles,” she said. “We have already assessed a number of the roads in this parish and we have already made sure that bridges and infrastructure that have broken down at places like Lamberts and Pie Corner can get the relief that is necessary.

“The type of structures that were built over a decade ago cannot serve the people of this country given the effects that we are seeing in terms of climate and the intensity of rainfall,” Bradshaw said.

Acknowledging that ministers had often prioritised delivery over messaging, Bradshaw urged Barbadians to separate constructive criticism from what she described as political noise.

She pledged to remain personally engaged in St Lucy alongside Phillips.

“I give you the assurance that in this constituency I will be walking with Peter Phillips, and any of you can come up to me and ask me about the potholes, the bridges, the road infrastructure and we can have a face-to-face conversation about it,” Bradshaw said.

Bradshaw ended with a direct appeal for votes, urging residents to support the BLP and give the party a renewed mandate. (CLM)