BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - IN light of the ongoing drought-like situation in the Federation, the government has spent in excess of half a million dollars on the supply of water to residents of several communities n St. Kitts.
Speaking during today’s (Mar. 23) sitting of the National Assembly, Minister with Responsibility for Water, the Hon. Ian Liburd, explained that several wells were commissioned to offset the ongoing problem.
“As I speak, at nights water is being rationed because of the rainfall deficit. I know the people at the Met Office are giving us some hope that the situation will improve over the next coming months.
“But what our Ministry and our government, as a matter of fact, have done in the interim? We have, for example, in order to bring relief to residents, we have expended $200,000 on a water supply improvement project to relief the residents of Saddlers by bring water from Dieppe Bay all the way down to Saddlers.”
According to the Minister, a well was recently commissioned in Lodge Village while pumps were installed in Cedar Grove, noting that a large number of system improvements were done to bring relief to residents.
“These interventions reflected a cost of over $500,000,” the Minister declared.
The Federation was hard hit in 2015 by the drought condition that saw large scale rationing due in large part to the critical levels of the water supply as a result of a deficit in rainfall.
Last year, St. Kitts had experienced below average rainfall which accounted for several crops being scarce because farmers were urged to use the drip system to water plants.
Residents were urged to store water, banned from washing vehicles and windows, while several standpipes were locked.
Acting Water Service Manager Dennison Paul had stated in a media interview early this year that he expected the dry period to continue well into the hurricane season.
Just recently he told local radio station WINN FM that rainfall over the last six months has stabilized the Federation’s water supply but the deficit still remains.
“Fortunate thing for us is that originally last year December the forecast was that the year would be as bad as last year or maybe worse, more recent forecast are saying that things might improve a little.”
