The Antigua Public Utilities Authority is adjusting its water distribution schedule as prolonged drought conditions place increasing pressure on the country’s reverse-osmosis plants.
Director General of Communications Maurice Merchant said Thursday that APUA’s desalination facilities remain operational but are being stretched to their limits as the authority works to maintain supplies across the country.
“The osmosis plants are working. They are being stretched to their limits,” Merchant said during the post-Cabinet news briefing.
He said some plants require frequent repairs and the continued replacement of modules used in the reverse-osmosis process.
Merchant said APUA recognizes the effect that unreliable water supplies have on households and is revising its distribution arrangements to reduce the length of outages in affected communities.
“APUA recognizes that it is not a good development for people not to have water,” he said. “Water is highly essential and even more essential when there is none coming from your pipes.”
While the revised schedule is intended to improve distribution, Merchant warned that interruptions would continue as the authority manages its available supply during the drought.
“APUA is asking the general public for some understanding in this matter, some patience in this matter,” he said.
Merchant said Antigua and Barbuda is traditionally drought-prone, but the current conditions are among the worst meteorological officials have seen in a long time.
“There are going to be some outages while they try to maneuver around the current drought situation that we are facing,” he said.
The government spokesman noted that water shortages are also affecting several countries across the Caribbean and other parts of the world.
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Some outages. Try none at all in Marina area for over a month. Repeated calls to 211 and nothing. Even if it were once a week to fill out tanks would be helpful in serving our paying tourists.
The water problems didn’t start with the drought. It’s been happeneing for years. Sometimes water comes once per week or not at all. APUA needs to replave the old pipes and stop playing games, then increase your storage facilities’ capcities.
It’s like we have been enduring a drought for 13 years after been promised that we were going to be having consistently running water after 13 days. We probably have the most Reverse Osmosis Plants per capita but the water is only abundant if you are able to pay $350 to a truck owner/ operator. Find out who are the owners of most of these trucks.
Same comments, different year, different decade.
This has been happening since 1982 and Antiguans from both political parties are to blame.
WHERE IS THE SCHEDULE TO BEGIN WITH ???
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