Bajan “M*M*” says Barbados Water Authority treats customers with contempt, while Jane Shattuck Hoyos says it was an adventure. (!)
First up: BFP reader M*M*
Last week Thursday and Friday, we witnessed a major 2 day water outage in areas of St. Michael and Christ Church which affected numerous residents, businesses and schools amongst others in the affected area. Children were unable to attend school, people were unable to go to work and do their business (just ask the hotels who were hosting athletes and officials from the boxing tournament) and many businesses were unable to operate effectively. It was during a period of heavy rainfall and flooding in some areas…water, water everywhere yet not a drop to drink!
What has me puzzled is that after a 60% increase in water rates in 2009 (which we were told was to retool the BWA in terms of mains replacement program etc.), a visit and “reading of the riot act” by Prime Minister Thompson, the creation of and installation of an Executive Chairman in former Senator Arni Walters that there has been little improvement at the level of service delivery at the Barbados Water Authority.
This is borne out by the numerous calls and complaints to the call-in programs and letters to the editor in our daily newspapers. After one burst was fixed, we were told that another one soon developed because of the pressure from turning back on the water too soon. Yes the mains are old – but wasnt the 60% increase in water rates supposed to address this? If not, what is the increase being used to finance? This is unacceptable and the Barbados Water Authority is treating its customers in contempt.
We need the Barbados Water Authority (and the Minister responsible Dr Denis Lowe) to be accountable to the people of Barbados. The supply of water is an essential service – water is essential to life. My solution, if it were up to me, allow the Barbados Water Authority to come under the ambit of the Fair Trading Commission as soon as possible. This way it will be held to the same standards as the electric and telephone utility or face the adverse consequences of severe monetary (or other) penalties for poor service!!!!
Now the view from Jane Shattuck Hoyos of Planet Barbados…
In Barbados, brush your teeth quick!
I awake this morning a couple hours after my early-bird husband Greg. I check the sea as I always do. The sea is full and it is raining. The usual serenity of the water has devolved to major upset with waves crashing. I stumble into the kitchen, put two Weatabix in a bowl, pour milk on top, and sit down to breakfast.
A few bites in, I hear Greg yell from the bathroom, “Janie, quick, go brush your teeth!”
I try to recall other recent behaviors indicating my husband had gone bonkers. Can’t think of any.
I keep eating.
Again he shouts, “Go! Go now!” This time he pokes his head around the corner as he says it. He waves his arms to demonstrate urgency.
I take another bite. He reads my face: it says my husband had gone nuts.
He slows down and explains, “The water pressure is diminishing rapidly. Soon we will have no water at all.”
Ah, now I get it…
Editor’s Note: But does Jane really get it?
We love Jane’s down to earth friendly style, and we’re having a wonderful time following her adventures as she continues her discovery of all things Bajan. You see, Jane fell in love with a Bajan and Barbados (or maybe it was the other way ’bout? 🙂 ) and everything old for us is new for Jane.
But occasionally she projects her experiences onto the rest of us and gives us a chuckle. If it is one way in her nice condo, it must be the same for the entire island. (Ha!)
Like when she continues with her article and says…
“Water going off is a very rare occurrence in Barbados. We (the whole island) is not prepared in any way for this. The water has gone off exactly twice since I moved to Barbados nearly 3 years ago; each time it was off less than an hour.”
Say what? Water off a “rare occurrence” ??? Jane must be making sport, but no, she’s serious!
Some kind-hearted readers at Planet Barbados gently let her know that she might want to reconsider.
… continue reading Jane’s article at Planet Barbados.
Barbados Free Press 
@M*M*
The water rates went up last year and the island’s mains are supposed to be replaced already? You must be one of those people who go into a business with a complicated order, and doesn’t understand why they can’t get it “tomorrow”.
A few years ago I had a business at Long Bay. After inquiring at the water authority of any outstanding water bills before I set up shop. I was shocked one morning 2months after opening, when my water supply was turned off, because there was an outstanding water bill for $7,800.00 from previous business. I made arrangements through my lawyer to pay this bill, because the landlord didn’t have the funds.
I didn’t use that water but I had no choice but to pay the bill.
If the water authority of Barbados can shut down the water supply of a poor black man who is providing a livelihood to the Bajan economy. They should hold themselves in that same regard high regard by making sure that paying customers are provided with water 100% of the time.
Ageing water mains burst from time to time.
Not much that can be done about that,
other than tearing up long sections to be replaced.
And then we moan about the traffic disruption involved.
Bajans seem unaware of just how incredibly higgledy-piggledy the whole thing evolved, without much real planning for an overcrowded, overdeveloped island
that would hold 300,00 ppl by the Yr. 2010.
Nice to see y’all missing the water, but not until the well ran dry.
Old story, nuh.
I myself learned to appreciate the island’s water supply after living in the highlands for 8 yrs.
and when dry season and crop season start,
water was a real problem at elevations over 700 ft. abv. sea level
I was at 930.
I appreciated it even more when a long section of 4 in. main slid down White Hill, Sin Andrew one rainy day
and we learned fast, how to do without water FOR TEN DAYS.
And you girls yowling about 2-3 days?
Pay your water bill in timely fashion and hope for improved service over the coming years.
Water was FAAAAR TOO CHEAP for FAAAAR too LONG.
Eff wunnuh hadda been paying a decent rate all along, the BWA mighta had better infrastructure for you, today.
The thing is, we couldn’t find out what was going on. When phoning BWA the line was busy for 2 days. On the CBC evening news, no official from BWA or government could let us know what was going on or when they expected service would be returned to normal. It was only after it was back on that we found out in the paper the next day that there was a broken main in Villa Road, Brittons Hill area. All that time we only knew about the one in the Pine that the truck damaged.
When it was reported that it was fixed (I believe around 5:00pm on Friday, and that it would take a while to come back on, we waited and waited and waited. Ours didn’t come back on until midnight!
That is 7 hours after it was fixed. Does that make sense to anybody?
I understand the burst main occurred in the pine and it was in a major artery.
I suspect it came from the Belle which supplies the major portion of water.
I can recall another burst main in that artery almost 20 years ago along the road passing Community College.
At that time it was the South Coast and Bridgetown took a similar hit, probably because supply reservoirs for both areas were affected.
Back then, everybody swore it was Sandi.
Pumping stations work 24/7 supplying the various reservoirs to which they are assigned. Distribution occurs from the reservoirs mainly to customers.
The reservoirs occur approximately every 200 feet up to a maximum at Castle Grant.
The pumping stations assigned to Castle Grant would be those at high elevations, probably Bowmanston and Sweetvale.
Bowmanston in periods of high rainfall sometimes closes as mud gets into the water.
Its output is limited like all the other pumping stations by the catchment area which supply and the rain that falls therein.
It is ironic that the higher elevations suffer the most as this is where most rain falls.
However it is the law of gravity that determines the fate of these areas. These were the last to get running water.
The distribution system is old and leaky in some parts.
I am told it also suffers from the legacy of the political system where contracted suppliers of pipe were favoured members of political parties who maximised their profits …. putting it nicely in economic terms.
In contrast, I am also told also that sections of cast iron pipe laid in the 1860’s from Benn Spring to Bridgetown are still in use and function well.
Old age on its own is thus no excuse.
However I suspect that even if the complete distribution system were replaced in an area the long term problems of that area which exist will remain because of the limitation placed on the pumping stations by catchment area and rainfall.
There is only so much water to go around.
The water supply system is actually an extremely well designed and thought out system.
It evolved after the 1860’s as our knowledge and understanding of our land inproved.
The catalyst for its development was the Cholera epidemic of 1854 when 20,000 people died in a matter of months.
Its development also coincided with the need to find sources of water to drive the “new” steam machines that produced our sugar.
The 1946 Senn Report was the “watershed” and encapsulated the knowledge and experience gained by drilling 700 plus wells, watching them perform over the years and talking about them.
So it is old and leaky, but “development” has long outstripped its capacity, in fact, since the 1990’s, all predicted and planned for based on our understanding.
The fundamental long term flaw lies in the strategic thinking of our leaders in not appreciating our capability and matching our development to that capability.
I sometimes doubt if they understand our capability.
The understanding of our land just does not rest in the minds of the professions in parliament which long ago replaced the planters who walked or rode it day to day and were in constant communication with the labour that worked it.
People actually used to be close to and love our land.
The result I fear will be no different to the disaster that occurred in Tudor Street because there were no means of escape.
Future eventualities just do not get the attention they should as they did in the past.
I just can’t see anything different in the future.
We have moved too far away from the land which supports us.
The ‘event’ in Villa Road must have been quite something!
Wife and I passed thru there the day after all the commotion
and there was a dig-up in the road
that had to be on the order of 30 ft. long!!
-maybe longer?
hard to tell when you’re passing at 15 mph really..
I have NEVER seen such a big dig-up in all my yrs. living here.
It looks like they had to repair a fair length/section of mains!
God knows what went on underground, but do take a drive across Villa Rd and see for yourself.
It’s hard to miss!
Interesting that John should mention…
“the legacy of the political system
where contracted suppliers of pipe were favoured members of political parties who maximised their profits”
I recall my father talking about particularly-low-grade pipe coming into the country back in the 1970s
-country of origin Korea,as I recall
and it was awful stuff!
Didn’t last more than about 20 yrs. as I discovered in the 1990s when I had to fix leaks in a house built..
(wait for it) in the 1970s!
This was when my father brought up the subject of this crap-grade pipe from Korea!
No doubt all gauges of pipe from 1/2 inch up to 12 in. mains were imported
and so the BWA worked with what was supplied.
Now here we are, 20-30 yrs. later
suffering the consequences of “cost-cutting” which never works in the long haul
only in the immediate future!