As St James North residents prepare to vote in Wednesday’s by-election, Prime Minister Mia Mottley has promised that her government will deliver enduring solutions to persistent water shortages affecting the constituency and other communities across Barbados, declaring access to clean, running water a fundamental right.
Speaking during a Barbados Labour Party (BLP) spot meeting at Ashton Hall, St Peter, on Wednesday night, Mottley acknowledged that households in some areas, such as Bayley Alley, are still without piped water, and said the Barbados Water Authority is actively working on engineering and technological interventions to close the gap.
“There are people in this community who, I’m told, may not have water… and we have said that we will find strong technological solutions,” she said.
“The water authority has recommended a pond [system] because of its distance from the sewage treatment plants. They are looking at other technological and engineering solutions as we speak.”
Mottley added that the State is weighing whether it would be more cost-effective to provide decentralised water systems than to relocate residents who are not currently connected to public mains.
“When you do the cost-benefit analysis, it may well be cheaper to give them the water with the engineering solution than to relocate them to another part,” she noted.
She also reaffirmed the government’s commitment to those communities which are expected to be linked to the Bridgetown Sewage Treatment Plant, as previously promised.
The prime minister said a suite of wider reforms and emergency upgrades to Barbados’ water infrastructure are underway, further referencing the government’s decision to cover water bills for affected residents in St Lucy and eastern St Peter as an interim measure, while mains are being replaced and filtration systems upgraded.
“We announced that while we seek to fix the problem with respect to the filtration systems and while we seek to replace the rusty mains that were put down more than 130 years ago… we would cover the basic water bills for the residents,” she said.
Mottley also pointed to what she described as past inaction by the Democratic Labour party in addressing chronic water shortages in parishes such as St Joseph, saying that within one year of taking office, her administration had built new reservoirs to stabilise the water supply.
“I was told within one year of coming to office that many of the reservoirs we had would not withstand a category one or two hurricane… and across this country… you see those new black tanks put in.”
She said these investments were made despite the country being under an International Monetary Fund programme at the time.
“Water is life,” Mottley declared. “We are not going to give sugar water and call it fruit punch. We are making the hard decisions now to give people the basic infrastructure they deserve.” (SM)
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