There has been a sharp decline in the number of water-related complaints received
by APUA as the availability of potable water has improved considerably following
better than expected rainfall..
Government spokesman, Ambassador Lionel Hurst told Thursday’s post-Cabinet
press briefing that the government has always maintained that the water ‘crisis’
had been exacerbated by the prolonged drought that the country has endured.
However, he revealed that higher than normal rainfall in the months of October
and February has resulted in an increase in the amount of stored water in dams,
aquifers and tanks. Hurst explained that despite adding reverse osmosis water
production plants in recent years, the amount of water available for distribution
was never able to meet the demand. This was because APUA had built its water
policies on the premise of 60/40…that is sixty percent produced by RO plants and
40 percent from stored water sources. However, this formular was disrupted by the
prolonged drought over the last ten or more years.
“As it turns out, we had lots of rain in October and again in February, which are
usually dry months. Therefore, we had significant rainfall in both months and as a
consequence the dams, the reservoirs and aquifers began to fill up. Potworks Dam,
for example, which has a capacity of 2.2 billion gallons, now has approximately
800 million gallons of water stored there. This will last a few months,” he revealed.
According to Hurst, with more water being made available to homes, businesses,
hotels, and institutions, there has been a marked decline in complaints made to
APUA regarding water.
“We thank the Almighty for sending sufficient rain in October and February to the
extent that the water crisis has somewhat disappeared,” he stated.
Hurst noted that there remains an issue with the distribution of water as many of
the pipes are the old cast-iron pipes laid some eighty years ago. APUA, he added,
has embarked on a programme to replace the aging pipes and that assistance has
been sought from the Chinese government in this regard.
He revealed that two engineers from China will soon be visiting the country to
conduct a study to see what is needed and to make recommendations to APUA and
to the Chinese government.
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