BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, Jul 18.2018 – THE rationing of the water supply is expected to continue as the drought which the twin-island Federation has been experiencing shows little signs of improvement.
Minister of Water, Hon. Patches Liburd, while rising to update Parliament on his portfolios, informed that despite weather casting predictions, St. Kitts and Nevis have yet to see the amount of rainfall that is to be expected.
He noted that although the Caribbean Climate Forum, the regional entity responsible for weather casting had predicted that a similar trend of rainfall would follow in 2018 as was in 2017 with 60.5 inches of rainfall but that has not materialized as yet.
To date, he explained, the Federation has only had 9.4 inches of rainfall and so rationing, which had already ran from 2015 up to mid- 2017, was reintroduced in February of this year [2018]. The affected areas include parts of Basseterre, Bird Rock, Frigate Bay, New Road, St. Peters, Shadwell, Pine Gardens and Cayon to Keys.
“Rationing island-wide ended in August 2017 but during those periods the Water Services Department has continued to advocate conservation and introduced the following measures in 2015 which included the continuation of imploring persons with no cisterns to explore purchasing large storage containers of 500 gallons or more,” Liburd went on to state.
He also stated that the measure also included that all residents are required to make leak repairs a priority as well as business places should implement a water management contingency plan which would involve daily monitoring of their water meters.
He further stated that government would have to ensure that critical institutions, such as the hospitals and schools, have standby water storage on site. He added that conservation methods also included no washing of vehicles, no watering of grasses and strict monitoring of standpipes.
Liburd said that the Basseterre system is now operating at the margins and is susceptible to shocks and in the event of excessive rainfall that would clog the surface intakes, it will impact the reliability of the supply.
“Routine monitoring of our wells have indicated that several wells including about 25 percent of well supply in the Basseterre cistern have Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) above World Health Organisation guidelines. This has implications for human health and is an indication of desalination of the aquifer.
“So far, we have taken steps. The Water Services Department has collaborated with the Royal Utilities, supplier of desalinated water to the St. Kitts Marriott Resort to link the government’s system to supply the Frigate Bay area with 500 000 gallons of water produced at their plant,” he explained.
He noted that the government was in the process of negotiating a price to purchase said water.
He added that the government is also currently in discussions with BEAD (contracting company) to resolve outstanding issues that will connect the approximately 1 000 000 gallons of water now available from the two Shadwell wells.
