Excerpts of Honourable Daniel Cumming’s presentation on his weekly radio program)
The CWSA has failed to invest in capital expenditure to address the water shortage problem. If one takes a look at the capital investment made by the CWSA over the last two decades specifically, one will see a significant decline in the capital investment. The CWSA seems to have been more interested in the bottom line. If you simply roll over, you pay the debts that you have. Most of those debts have been paid off a long time for the quality investment in Dalaway and other places during the time of the New Democratic Party.
Those debts have long been paid, so the CWSA finds itself with having very little to pay in terms of debt; unlike when we started under the New Democratic Party regime in the eighties. The debt level is quite insignificant. What has happened is that the CWSA for whatever reason is being preoccupied with its financial statements looking good.
After all, what does it take to simply take the water push it out in the pipeline, and have consumers pay? That pays for itself quite easily with the efficiency of the staff. What has not happened in this period, is the significant increase in the treatment work that is required. During these two decades, they have constructed a half-a-million-gallon tank at Majorca. But there is no treatment work whatsoever for that Majorca system that is ‘muddy’ for a significant part of the season. Cumberland, a major system likewise treatment works are woefully short and we all continue to get those problems during the rainy season where the quality is not what it ought to be in today’s age.
St Vincent and the Grenadines cannot continue with this kind of water supply. It is no longer acceptable for the water and sewage authority to say to the people, sorry, because of the drought, we cannot supply you with water. So, some parts of the population will have to go for several hours without water and I dare say that if this dry season gets out of hand, some parts of the country will be going for days without water. We have to be mindful of that so I urge people to look seriously at having storage in their homes.
The Solution
The solution to this drought problem that will be with us for the foreseeable future is relatively simple. I spoke to you earlier about using our groundwater. The rivers that we have rely on the springs which simply tap water at higher levels in the aquifers.
Today, I want us to look at a different type of aquifer. I want you to use your imagination and come with me to the north-windward side of the island. For years, we referred to the mighty river that separates the river from the rest of the island, the Rabacca Dry River. At this time of the year, that river will be dry for a significant portion of its length. The higher up you go, there will be water and that water disappears. It disappears because it goes into the ground, into the aquifer. So if you go into that area beyond Georgetown where you have this kind of granular material and if you dig a hole twenty feet down, you will find water.
In some areas, the water is contaminated because of human activities. But, there are vast areas where the water in that aquifer is of a particularly good quality the raw water coming in and disappearing into the ground is of excellent quality and it is stored in the ground. Some of it seeps out towards the coast going into the sea, because of its elevation it is unlikely that if you go close to the sea you will get any salt intrusion because the water levels on the mainland in the ground is high so that the pressure keeps the water from the sea from infiltrating and making it saline.
Why am I telling you all of this?
The CWSA has an excellent system in Georgetown, Perseverance, but it is small. The one that was constructed in Jennings Valley during my time is a bigger system and all of that is connected downwards on the windward side. The CWSA has transmission mains on the windward highway that takes water from Jennings to fairly far south. What is required is an enhancement of this transmission main from the Rabacca area as far south as Diamond.
The water authority then has to dig wells in Rabacca at a suitable area away from the contamination either through agriculture or other means so that the quality of the water is good. And, then institute whatever minimal treatment is required whether in the form of aeration to get out some of the iron or whatever treatment, pump it onto the surface. Then into the pipeline so that the windward coast down can be supplied with water and leave the Dalaway system from Kingstown back to the Leeward. Dalaway currently puts water to Dorsetshire Hill and further out.
You bring this water from the north windward area. Let me hasten to tell you. There is an excellent supply of water in the aquifer in north windward, excellent supply in both quantity and quality. All that is required is an investment in minimal treatment and a transmission main to take the water from the Rabacca area down to the windward side of the island.
You cannot continue to tell the people when the rains do not come that you can’t supply water. This kind of investment should have been done. I have been on record advising the CWSA of this for a long time. This is the only viable option.