Utilities Minister the Honourable Melford Nicholas has acknowledged that the re-
piping and repairs of underground water mains currently underway are a massive
undertaking, the scale of which is unknown to the general public.
As such, Nicholas has revealed that the administration is considering outsourcing
some of the work being carried out, in order to ensure a better outcome, especially
for road users.
“How do we get to a better outcome where we are not damaging the road surfaces
and leaving them in a state of disrepair? We have decided upon an outsource team
between APUA and public works. So, I imagine in another couple of weeks we
should in the first instance ensure as a trial option we know how it works, the real
cost of doing it and the obligation is going to fall on APUA as it rightly should, so
that we can move towards that situation in ultimum.”
The repair of underground pipes and resurfaced roads is one of the hurdles
standing in the way of the government’s efforts to normalize daily supply of water
to households and businesses across Antigua and Barbuda, but one which they
intend to overcome.
The project is a joint initiative between the Antigua Public Utilities Authority and
the Ministry of Works and according to Minister Nicholas, repairing just the roads
that were dug up by APUA to facilitate underground pipe work is expected to cost
several millions of dollars.
“At this stage it is a huge challenge! If I were to make an estimate as to what it will
take to repair and resurface all of the roads that APUA has gone under in any one
year, it will be in the hundreds of millions of dollars,” Nicholas stated.
Corroded iron pipes and fragile PVCs are widespread within the APUA network
and are responsible for breakages and leakages. If not replaced, the distribution of
water to communities will be severely hampered, since the high pressure required
to move it through the mains will be causing more damage.
“We have over five hundred of these faults every month. So, because of the high
pressure it requires to get water to these far distances, and the fact that the
pipelines are brittle, you will have frequent breakage and when you have these
frequent breakage, you have to go into frequent repairs,” the utilities minister
explained.
Government has reiterated its commitment to solving the water issues being
experienced by citizens and residents through its re-piping programme, repairing
existing wells and the construction of Reverse Osmosis Plants (ROs), which are
already bringing relief to consumers.
