The days of the antiquated system of manually turn on/off valves in the water delivery system island-wide are fast coming to an end.
That’s the word of Utilities Minister, Melford Nicholas, who has long championed the need for Antigua and Barbuda to discard the old system of seeing APUA staff opening and closing valves to determine the supply of water to particular areas of Antigua.
Minister Nicholas, the minister responsible for technology, has always felt that the technology exists for the system to be automated and that these valves can be manipulated from a central command centre, making it more efficient and cost-sensitive.
The minister has announced that the government will soon pen an agreement with a company out of Trinidad and Tobago – Controls Technology Ltd. – which has already submitted a proposal for the government to peruse.
“What we will be doing is operating is automating the transmission and distribution system where all of our valves in the southern corridor will move to a system where we can have a central operating centre,” he reported.
Minister has been studying these automated systems throughout the Caribbean and even while on a recent visit to Cuba he spent time observing a similar system in operation there.
