CHARLESTOWN NEVIS (January 29, 2007) -- Junior Minister with responsibility for Water on Nevis the Hon. Carlisle Powel has dismissed claims that the water shortage experienced in parts of Nevis over last weekend was as a result of sabotage.

In an interview with the Department of Information on Monday at his office in Charlestown, the Minister cleared the air and said the shortage was due mainly to road works on the way on Phase III of the Island Main Road.  

I understand that there are some malicious thoughts that part of our problems are due to sabotage. We have absolutely no evidence of this. This is simply due to the fact that our system is such that there is no surplus of water and that we were adversely affected by Surrey Paving with respect to the road works and we cant blame Surrey Paving either because we expected that there would be some damage to the pipes.

We are trying our best to ensure that when there is any damage caused to these pump mains or the distribution lines, that we very quickly effect the repairs. I am confident that The Water Department and our employees there have been reacting very speedily, he said.

According to Mr. Powell, water shortages had been experienced on the island over the past week and some of the areas hard hit by the disruptions were Hamilton in particular due to its altitude. Over the weekend however, the areas of Ramsbury, Government Road, Craddock Road, Stoney Grove and Charlestown were affected. 

He noted that during the Parliamentary Debate he had indicated the Water Departments expectations were that some pipelines would have suffered damage and as a result there would have been some disruptions.

Most of the water for Charlestown comes from Gingerland and when we [Nevis Water Department] have to shut down these pump mains for repairs we obviously would not be able to pump water down to our reservoirs feeding Charlestown and as a result of that there has been a backlog on the system.

The quaint situation in Nevis is that we have absolutely no surplus water, so on a daily basis if you pump one million gallons of water per day, we are using all of ~~adz:Right~~the water you are pumping and so because some of our pumps were down for two or three days, we have been forced with a situation where that water was out of the system, he explained.

Notwithstanding, Mr. Powell said in order to assist consumers assistance was sought from the St. Kitts and Nevis Fire and Rescue Services to distribute water to the affected areas particularly on Sunday.

In the meantime he advised persons to collect water for use in the event of any further shortages and to conserve water where necessary.