Government doing all it can to fix water problem, says Browne

1. But Gaston and the ALP promised all water supply problems would be fixed in Antigua within 2 weeks after the election in 2014. Wha’ happen? Two weeks don’t pass yet?

2. Who is this population going to believe? The lying words of defeated parliament member. Or the SAD reality that you have to still use bucket and TEA CUP to wash you kin! In 2021!

   Vote them OUT!!!!!!!!!

3. Here’s the deal. Is it going to be 14 days or 2 weeks or forever? Antigua have always had water issues. This is Historical. You can’t just tell us this now when you already gave us a timeline based on your assessments. If you were wrong, so us the new plan and new timeline then say so, but all that mumbo jumbo won’t cut it. I would like to flush my toilet in the middle of the night like the people at Crosbie’s and Coolidge. I just can’t stand it any more

   • Notes From A Native Son Of The Rock!
     “The Afrocentric method considers that no phenomena can be apprehended adequately without locating it first. A phenom must be studied and analyzed in relationship to psychological time and space. It must always be located. This is the only way to investigate the complex interrelationships of science and art, design and execution, creation and maintenance, generation and tradition, and other areas bypassed by theory.” – Dr. Molefi Asante, Afrocentricity, The Theory of Social Change!

     Full disclosure, the findings, comments and suggestions which will be proffered are not based on any research engaged to understand the reason for the “Water Woes” with which the People of African Descent have lived since their introduction to Antigua and Barbuda, or, the Sisyphean struggles of Colonial and Planter Governments and consecutive ALP, PLM, ABLP and UPP Governments to remedy and satisfy the ever-increasing demand of the growing population and the resultant economy! This mere voice in the wilderness has from preschool education sought learning opportunities to better understand the various disciplines of the basic components of a Water Supply System!

     Friends, CountryWomen, Rastas, as Asante says, the phenom must be located in Time and Space! Some speak of Droughts! Some shout Climate Change! “Both Antigua and Barbuda are situated between Latitudes 17” and 18” north and directly in the path of the North-East Trade Winds, but because of their low elevations have always suffered from insufficient rainfall. Prolonged droughts, high evaporation, the absence of rivers and streams, and the presence of only one or two permanent springs in Antigua and, none at all in Barbuda have all combined to give each island a constant shortage of fresh water: a factor which played a major part in the settlement of both.” Brian Dyde, A History of Antigua!

   • @Skyewill…and, this is an #Economic PowerHouse?
     The Nations water problems are not unsolvable. The hotels and as you mentioned, areas like Crossbies have found ways to have constant water supply, and I’m quite sure, that the Chinese and those other private developers in the #New Economic Zones, which by the way you are correct, the whole Nation should, MUST be given the same incentives, perks etc, as these #New #Developers.

     See what I tell John French II…

4. Gaston, If you worked the water issues as fast as you worked on the vaccine implementation, it would have been finished by now … JUST SAYING!

   • Notes From A Native Son Of The Rock! “The philosophy of Afrocentricity as expounded by Molefi Kete Asante and Ama Mazama, central figures of the Temple School, is a way of answering all cultural, economic, political, and social questions related to African people from a centered position. … . Indeed, Afrocentricity cannot be reconciled to any hegemonic or idealistic philosophy. It is opposed to radical individualism as expressed in the postmodern school. But it is also opposed to spookism, confusion, and superstition.”

     Lest We Remember! The Caribbean accounts for SEVEN of the world’s top 16 of the 36 most water-stressed countries in the World! Antigua and Barbuda is one of the SEVEN in that top 16 Grouping! At a tender age between 3 and 4 which was the age at which teachable moments began in Primary School, Antigua’s water woes were vividly brough home! A friendly neighbour and bus driver, “Lenny” would take this curious and inquisitive lad on his bus with a body and seats made of wood filled with the villagers from All Saints, Freemans Village and Sea View Farm, courtesy of the Late Luther George, to Body Ponds and Walling’s to collect and return water to their homes! The utensils of buckets, pails, oil cans, Yabba’s, clay pots, basins etc., when filled with their precious and life saving water from the wells and reservoirs, were covered with pond leaves to lessen the spillage as the bus weaved and rocked as it traveled over poorly built and badly maintained roadways some of which were called “tracks”! That was the colonial environment of the late forties early fifties as the regular droughts made life more miserable for the People of African descent! Just as with our Ancestors, enslaved Africans, as with us today, unsatisfied demand and poor supply of water caused by geography, and the resultant droughts without a modern sustainable, efficient water supply chain: harvesting, processing, storage and distribution; have been our lot since 1632!

     Most school children on Antigua and Barbuda have been taught that there are four main stages in the water cycle. They are evaporation, condensation, precipitation and collection! The young ones look to their elders especially the intelligentsia, the bureaucrats, the technicians, the engineers and above all their government, specifically the GoAB administration of the day to make real the interrelationship and connect the science of design, creation, generation and maintenance, not only to a sustainable supply: evaporation, condensation, precipitation and collection but also to a growing demand satisfied by harvesting, processing, storage and distribution of potable water!

     Demand on the Rock is a very tricky issue given the “growing population and the resultant economy!” Easily identified is the demand side of the equation: the people, agriculture and animal husbandry, fire services, sanitation, disaster emergencies, Institutional, Industrial and the Hospitality, Yachting and Cruise Tourism Sector! School children should challenge any of the intelligentsia, the bureaucrats, the technicians, the engineers and smooth-talking politicos to give them the estimated design and or the actual daily demand per person figures for each of the categories! How many, People of African Descent resident on the drought-stricken ad scarce water supply Rock, know roughly their true daily water usage unfettered by the every constant “water stoppage”! Yet the Politicos spout the beauty of more and new Desalinization Plants constructed on lands adjacent to beaches with their intakes and outflow points within a short distance from the low water mark!

     • @Sir Walter, da Big OG! A wah a guarne Papi!?
       🇦🇬😀I hear you, and can appreciate the history/timeline of the Nations water woes.
       A…upgrade the Water catchments in certain villages with underground storage.
       B…place storage tanks underground in parks and recreational facilities designed with such things as amphitheater’s, museums, flowering gardens. All utilising present and future technologies.
       The youths are ready for the challenges which these developments will bring. However, the are ready and MUST be given the opportunity to excel. We just have to get rid of those bumbling bureaucrats, and nattering nabobs.
       Yes, it will take financing and lots of it, but when I hear the comments from our leaders, as to how fast they become millionaires, I say, we have the capital it’s just not being managed to benefit all.
       I’m sure these new FREE ECONOMIC TRADE ZONES, the Chinese Fortresses, and the #Fockers in Barbuda are not having and will not have water woes.
       Mill Reef was built during those days of your #Bus #Rides to collect water. I don’t think Mill Reef Club nor its private residence’s have any water problems.

       RASpect…

5. The water situation would get better when the Brand New City is constructed. What has become of that pie in the sky, bull chit.

6. Overall, the water supply situation has been very good through the last few years. If you’re someone who goes out and about in the countryside you can see we are in trouble with groundwater, as there’s very little ground water to see the agricultural sector through the drought season, there will be many challenges this season with adequate water supply for farmers and their livestock. Environmental factors and unforeseen issues can definitely put pressure on normal supply. We just need to keep moving forward and work on increasing further osmosis investments/projects until the osmosis plants collectively exceed our daily requirements….

7. Notes From A Native Son Of The Rock!
   “A government or a party gets the people it deserves and sooner or later a people gets the government it deserves.” ― Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth!

   Some Inconvenient Truths:
   Abandon Potsworks Dam as a source of potable water! This dam was conceived in the late sixties as a result of flooding from rains and not any detailed engineering and hydrological studies. Today The dam loses over 1 million gallons of water daily to evaporation. For the historical referent point in time and Space: The reservoir is named after an 18th century pottery works at the Garden estate, which was owned by the Codrington family from the early 18th to the end of the 20th century. A part of the dam is built over the site of the works and a 19th century bridge! And some talk of Emancipate yourself from Mental Slavery! Oh Gad!

   The Aquifers in the Shekerly Mountains of Antigua have been exhausted and have not been able to be replenished from the rainfall of the last fifty years! Additionally, the water has become brackish from infiltration of sea/salt water! Remove them from the Supply equation!
   Wallings is now dry and a Tourist attraction of Colonial Engineering!

   GoAB has made a policy decision to Harvest potable water from an abundance of sea water using costly Desalinization Plants! A&B neither designs, creates, adequately maintains or generates good operating means and methods of the plants! Such behavioural patterns must be changed for sustainable policy instruments and quality informed procedures.

   The Desalination Plants which are the engines for securing potable water have been seen as the most critical Process of the Antigua and Barbuda’s Water Supply Chain by all administrations even to the detriment of some beaches, inland bays and the marine environment! That the human resources to operate and maintain the processing has not been bolstered through continuous learning and capacity building shows a complete disconnect of the strategic and tactical imperatives that Processing should hold in the Water Utility department at APUA. That requires a complete overhaul and change management culture!

   Storage of water is not as glamourous as announcing a new desalination plant! Sadly, this area of the water supply chain has been widely neglected! A well designed and operated water utility would see Storage Capacity as the heart of its system through which water is supplied and distributed to the various stakeholders and customers! These Storage systems should be filled at periods of low water demand (usually at Night) to meet the supply needs at peak demand times (usually during the Day)! APUA and its Ministry, Bureaucrats, Administrators, Engineers, Technicians and Staff, who have travelled the world over viewing other well run water utilities, have not taken their heads out of the 365 beaches of sand and rock on Antigua and Barbuda! To improve the Water Utility more Strategic and tactical efforts and skills are in dire need to design, create, build and operate a sustainable and efficient storage system! This is not a quick fix! This will require data mining, digital analytics and major consultation with all stakeholders and customers! APUA does not have the Capacity heft to effect that change! GoAB and Higher Education must bring about new policy, learning and systems development within the next three years!

   Everyone knows that Distribution of Potable Water on Antigua and Barbuda is the weakest link in the Water Supply Chain! The Minister has admitted that distribution system loses more than 30% daily! Some say its due to old underground cast iron pipes! Some say the losses are due to improperly connected joints in the PVC underground lines! Some say the losses are due to poorly installed High Density Polyethylene pipes underground! Some have connected losses to the damages done from the regular closing of the water supply! Some have attributed the losses to the damages resulting from the unabated high-pressure delivery from the desalination plants to feed customer needs! It is accepted that the distribution system is a mess! Yet APUA, and its Ministry, Bureaucrats, Administrators, Engineers, Technicians and Staff continue to dig and patch rather than design, create, maintain and generate a sustainable and efficient new Distribution System!

   Time to Change The Modus Vivendi and Operandi of The Water Utility! Mr. Minister APUA, The Honourable Prime Minister, “The cognitive and structural aspects of a paradigm are incomplete without the functional aspect. There is something more than knowing in the Afrocentric sense; there is also doing. Afrocentricity holds that all definitions are autobiographical.” Asante!

8. somebody posting as skyewill?

9. More lies, Gaston Browne. In 2014, you promised that we would have water within 14 days {after the election}
   Didn’t you? Didn’t you promise that? and we believed you. Did you lie? Yes, you did. You are a BIG FAT LIAR.
   By the way, whatever happened to the 500 houses in 500 days?
   Another ABLP lie!

10. I think the dumbest slaves were dropped off in Antigua. All we do is fight about party and lose sight of the real issues. Here we are defending blue or red on this matter and at the end of it, all of us are still without water. I view us as still regressive and unintelligent when it comes to politics. We are busy defending our side when all of us have no decent roads, the city looks like a dump, the gutters are full of green water and bushes and carry a stench that can stifle you as you pass by. Our neighbourhoods resemble ghettos and there is trash everywhere. I can go on and on with this. My point is, we are the real losers in this argument. It matters not which side you are on, when there is no water you have no water. Late pension payments are a reality for everyone. Horrible infrastructure affects us all. Open your eyes, people. Your attention is being diverted away from what you really should be agitating about and you are being cheated.

11. Absolutely correct, there needs to be a reset of the whole political system in Antigua. I am sick to the back teeth of all the in-fighting, name calling and litigation between the parties.

    Maybe, it’s time that there should be some sort of coalition between them, where these GAME PLAYERS’ start to put their citizens first … AND NOT LAST!

12. WAIT!!! The dawg join the UPP? Annah Lamin and Colin in the background dey? Me think me hear Winston Williams and Driftwood anall. The kool-aid drinkers have no clue what’s going on. They are just a bunch of followers.

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