APUA told to fix water problem before October in case of elections

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Prime Minister Gaston Browne is waiting for an adequate daily supply of pipe-borne water before he will call general elections in Antigua and Barbuda.

The water crisis seems to be one of the biggest problems the Antigua Labour Party (ALP) will have to deal with, since it campaigned on this issue eight years ago when it won the elections.

At the time, the Minister now responsible for the Antigua Public Utilities Authority (APUA), Sir Robin Yearwood, had said that any government which could not provide this basic commodity was wicked and did not deserve to be in office.

Now, in an apparent effort to excuse the current water woes, APUA says the country’s main surface-water catchment, the Potworks Dam, is empty.

The dam’s storage capacity is approximately one billion gallons. However, APUA says that, under normal circumstances, it could distribute between 794,000 and 1.3 million gallons per day from this source.

The Authority explains that it has not been able to utilize the dam since the last major rainfall in November 2020. That water lasted until mid-2021, it says; but, since then, there has been a significant deficit in its distribution network.

APUA is now promising that, by the end of this year (2022), two additional Reverse Osmosis (RO) Plants will be added to its network. The output will then exceedthe daily demand and adequately substitute for Potworks Dam, it says.

But Prime Minister Browne – who has already given deadlines by which water will run constantly – is not happy with APUA’s timelines, especially for commissioning the RO plant in Bethesda.

Speaking on his weekly radio programme on Saturday, May 28, Browne says the freshwater sources have dried up due to climate change.

Meanwhile, the Fort James plant should come on stream by the end of June or July, Browne claims. (REAL NEWS)

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10 COMMENTS

  1. This is more sad than anything. Water should never be an issue in a country that’s supposedly been an economic powerhouse (as stated by the PM).

    • You feel to buy tye equipments for the plant easy. There is a process and yet still they have to be shipped to Antigua so cut the people some slack and let them do what upp never did

    • @Ras Smood, from the original Ras Smood ✝️❌🦨 🥲😆pity you, you wanna be like Ras Smood, son of Mami Wata and Papa Elegba, keep it up. My stock price will definitely rise because of you, and what you’re attempting to do!
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      #Forensics Matters

  4. Pumping water in rusted leaking pipes not going to help. Maybe brown water will flow until after the election and then we will be told no water because of the leakage.

  5. The water problem should be fixed because the public deserve better. Not in case of any damn election!
    Why anybody with common sense will go into an election box and elect ABLP is still such a damn mystery to me.

  6. One of the campaign speeches. “My fellow comrades we have provide water for all the citizens of Antigua just in time for election” It only took 8 years but should have taken 14 days. Its the UPP fault “

  7. this shouldn’t have anything to do with elections and just something anyone who’s leading should have sorted out, why everything gotta be wrapped so deep in politics and the coons on both sides jumping up at every chance they get. the country needs a steady water flow and those old rusty pipes from however yrs ago needs to be changed as well its gonna consume a lot of money but it needs to be done, same way like how the gov giving away the lands without anyone seeing any docs on how much or the plans on it im sure they can do the water lines.

    also why doesn’t anyone think about fixing and widen the DAM out in Jennings? thats a ideal location to have a proper DAM right now and it catches water whenever any rain passes the area…

    far as i see gov makes more money this way with the water issue so they just throwing on airs to fool the morons they have jumping up

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