Relief in the pipeline for N’ Windward residents

Relief to the periodic disruption of pipe-borne water to residents supplied by the
Perseverance system may be coming soon.
This with the announcement by management of the Central Water and Sewerage Authority
(CWSA) that work to improve that system is expected to begin.
However, that relief may be some time in coming as General Manager of CWSA, Winsbert
Quow said that work is not expected to begin until later this year.
According to Quow, the plans were completed and they were entering the contract bidding
stage of the project which will see money borrowed by Government under the Volcano
Eruption Emergency Project (VEEP) go towards improving the storage capacity, treatment
and pre-treatment on the system.
Residents of Dickson, Spring Village, Langley Park, Chapmans, Rabacca, Orange Hill and
Tourama have had their water supplied disrupted.
Leading into the just concluded Christmas season, CWSA have posted notices on its social
media page advising customers of the closure of the Perseverance system due to large
amounts of silt and mud entering the system.
And although some residents in the lower sections of Georgetown have received water
through the interconnectivity with the Jennings system, residents living in areas from Caratal
and upwards have had to deal with intermittent disruptions to the supply of water.
Quow, while speaking on radio on January 3 explained that large amounts of rainfall in the
area meant that the system’s intake became overwhelmed with high levels of silt and mud.
He further explained that there are several filters at the intake of the Perseverance system
which filters out silt, however the large amount of mud caused the filters to become clogged.
Under normal operation, Quow said that the filters are usually cleaned, and they are done
regularly.
And usually, the water supply can be maintained although the intake is turned off to allow for
the filters to be cleaned.
“But now that there is this mud, they get clogged quickly so we have to clean more regularly
and while they are cleaned then we can produce water,” Quow said.
And with the frequency in which the intake has to be cleaned, in addition to the heavy usage
of water during the holiday season, the storage tank became depleted.
“So, what we are doing, we have to clean the filters, restore the water supply, fill up the
storage tank, and then start to feed the area,” Quow said.
The high levels of turbidity (mud) is being attributed to the eruption of the La Soufriere
volcano back in 2021 which Quoq said had stripped the slopes on nearby mountains of
vegetation.
The vegetation, Quow explained, acted as a filter, but following the series of eruptions which
occurred in April 2021, the slopes were now exposed resulting in high levels of unwanted
material entering the system.
And with the expectancy that this is going to be an added feature, the CWSA intends to
strengthen the system to mitigate against that.
According to the CWSA’s GM, the raw water entering the system is usually pretty good but
work will see the installation of a pre-treatment system and a sedimentation tank which
would allow for the water to settle before entering the filters.
The water will be more treated he said, saying that they may have to start dosing the water
with a chemical to allow the mud and silt to join so that it can be skimmed off the top, a
process he said was called coagulation.
Work is also be done to increase the storage capacity in the area, Quow said.