The water situation in Antigua and Barbuda has now reached a critical stage with APUA ending the extraction of water from two surface water sources because of falling water levels.
Communications Officer for the Authority, Anazette Reynolds said that effective Monday, the Water Business Unit ceased the extraction of water from Potworks Dam. One day later, on Tuesday, the extraction of water from one of the dams in Bendals also came to a halt for the same reasons.
Reynolds explained that the authority was extracting a total of nine-hundred-thousand gallons of water daily from Potworks Dam and now it has made arrangements to replace the loss from the surface water source by turning to additional reverse osmosis sources.
According to the communications officer, APUA has expanded the water purchase agreement it had in place with North Sound Marina. She said the company has added additional capacity and that they are currently carrying out tests before going into full production in the coming weeks.
Reynolds stated that the additional capacity will bring production from North Sound Marina to a total of one million gallons of water daily; thereby replacing the deficit caused by the closure of the Potworks Dam pipeline.
She explained that the country is going through a hydrology drought, which is what happens when surface water and the water in the well reach a critical level forcing the authority to drastically reduce water from these sources.
Under these circumstances, APUA wants the public to begin to conserve water as much as possible starting immediately.
