{"id":115308,"date":"2020-08-17T08:14:54","date_gmt":"2020-08-17T12:14:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/?p=115308"},"modified":"2020-08-17T08:14:54","modified_gmt":"2020-08-17T12:14:54","slug":"apuas-water-distribution-will-improve-in-18-months-max-hurst","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/apuas-water-distribution-will-improve-in-18-months-max-hurst\/","title":{"rendered":"APUA\u2019s water distribution will improve in 18 months \u2013 Max Hurst"},"content":{"rendered":"
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APUA continues to lose 80 per cent of the water it produces because of old, broken mains,\u00a0Government\u2019s Chief of Staff Lionel Max Hurst says.<\/p>

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According to Hurst, it will be another year and six months before the problem is fixed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be 18 months from today when we\u2019ll be able to announce that APUA has significantly [dealt with] that problem,\u201d Hurst said on\u00a0OBSERVER AM<\/b>.<\/p>

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\u201cPart of the problem is that those pipes are laid in St. John\u2019s. They are old cast iron pipes and it means that you\u2019ll have to disrupt not just traffic but commerce as well as the ability to enter and exit businesses in St. John\u2019s when you destroy the roadway in order to get to the pipes that are buried underneath.\u201d<\/p>

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Hurst said APUA has successfully negotiated a $168 million loan from Antigua Commercial Bank but the draw downs have not yet begun.<\/p>\n

However, he said some preparatory work is being done using the resources of APUA.<\/p>

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He said approximately 30 per cent of the $168 million will be used to upgrade the APUA\u2019s water infrastructure.<\/p>\n

\u201cWater is so important and we are experiencing a drought \u2014 the worst in 80 years \u2014 that reliance upon surface water and upon the underground aquifers has become impossible,\u201d Hurst said.<\/p>

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