PM Browne Highlights Century-Old Pipe Networks as Major Obstacle to Water Infrastructure Upgrades
Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister Gaston Browne has warned that aging water infrastructure is not only hampering national development efforts, but poses a shared challenge across the English-speaking Caribbean.
Speaking on his weekly Pointe FM radio programme, the Prime Minister said that many countries in the region are grappling with century-old underground piping networks that have yet to be replaced.
“We have a piping infrastructural problem within the entire English-speaking Caribbean. This applies to Barbados, Jamaica – you name it,” Browne said. “Since those pipes were actually laid – probably about 100 years ago – they have not been replaced. All countries – certainly English-speaking Caribbean countries – will find themselves having to re-pipe.”
Browne explained that Antigua and Barbuda’s water woes have been compounded by the government’s efforts to boost supply through increased reverse osmosis production, which is placing added pressure on fragile pipelines.
“So what is happening now, as we keep increasing the amount of water through reverse osmosis water, and with all that pressure – the pipes keep bursting,” he said. “Now the problem is, you don’t know when and where a pipe is gonna burst.”
He pointed to a recent incident in the capital to illustrate the issue, where fresh roadworks were disrupted by sudden pipeline failure.
“Just on Redcliffe Street, Public Works went in there and ‘Barber-Greene’d’ the road because they were trying to spruce up St. John’s – next thing, BOOM,” he said.
The Prime Minister said the country’s ongoing road rehabilitation programme is revealing the extent of the deep-rooted infrastructural deficiencies that must be tackled in tandem. He argued that long-term development will only be possible if governments confront these outdated systems that remain widespread throughout the region.
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Engineers should know better but when you heed to politicians who is seeking accolades then you get embarrassed. Don’t blame the pipe infrastructure because any Engineer should know what’s below the surface and if you don’t know then you unearth and repair or replace. So now paving is taking place all over the country with no replacing of pipes until they break. Make it make sense.
Quite agreed, but you know we are not like st croix the other day that have the resources and administrative safe guard for the citizens that tested their water system and found out there was lead contamination from the old pipes, in a thousand years Antigua and APUA will not be able to make that verification , check the stats during a food product recall or car, the one percenters is allowed to bolodfacedly announce they don’t have any in their order, so they don’t lose their monies, the citizens as guinea pig has to pay for their lost, and price control and the government tip toe around them.
Now Apua water system could have been responsible for all these cancer and sickness that emanate over the years in our health system, but with no empirical data you will never know. We are a poor country and don’t have that resource capability, so the changing of the pipes may be the best thing since slice bread.
Quite agreed, but you know we are not like st croix the other day that have the resources and administrative safe guard for the citizens that tested their water system and found out there was lead contamination from the old pipes, in a thousand years Antigua and APUA will not be able to make that verification , check the stats during a food product recall or car, the one percenters is allowed to boldfacedly announce they don’t have any in their order, so they don’t lose their monies, the citizens as guinea pig has to pay for their lost, and price control and the government tip toe around them.
Now Apua water system could have been responsible for all these cancer and sickness that emanate over the years in our health system, but with no empirical data you will never know. We are a poor country and don’t have that resource capability, so the changing of the pipes may be the best thing since slice bread.
Except people who actually travel will know that the rest of the Caribbean enjoys consistent, regular water supply, with few interruptions. The only place I’ve faced water woes in all my travels is at home in Antigua.
@Frequent Flyer…. This is absolutely a lie. I was in both Barbados and St. Kitts last month and both countries had water issues. In fact, Bajans have been railing about this very issue. In St. Kitts, the government is presently installing a new reverse osmosis plant in an effort to address water shortage.
Y’all need to stop lying in an effort to discredit y’all own country.
You will get the same results do the pipes then the road we are accustom to the bad roads already, replace the pipes. Nicholas doing a good job with the water pressure and the internet and phone he working on things of necessity.
I firmly agree with P.M Browne. The difficulty I have is that fixing the roads when most of the old corroded pipes runs beneath them is counter productive and boils down to nothing but a waste of scarce resources. We need to bite the bullet once and for all and invest in completely upgrading the pipe network especially where it runs below critical road infrastructure. We fix roads only to see them dug up weeks later is a big waste. It’s useless dressing up in jacket and tie when your underwear and vests have more holes than a warri board.
What is Gaston talking about with centuries old pipe????? Who was running pipes in Antigua in 1925???? Cause I’m sure that not even 1 stand pipe was there at that time. Just say the pipes dem old. APUA and Public Works neednto have a better working relationship and proper communication. I live at the bottom of a street where Apua dig up the road to run some pipes and nobody ever came back to fix the trenches they dig.
Wondering if he priming us for an additional increase in ABTB fees using the excuse that well we have to fix the road twice cause of burst pipe
Cyar put nothing past them.
@Boogie…. Errrrmmmmm….. If you don’t know what to say why don’t you just whistle? Antigua got piped water in the late 1800s and electricity in 1917. Do you think those technologies were invented by your parents?
The problem is compounded because no maps exist to show where pipes were laid. The engineers highlighted this when they had to do Independence Drive twice. They fixed the first burst pipe only to find that there were different pipe lines also there. I hope that this time around, detailed maps are being kept of the pipe system. And for frequent flyer who claims that Antigua is the only country with this problem, you are a liar. Guyana with all the rain and rivers, there is a serious water distribution problem. Same in many Caribbean countries including Jamaica, Barbados, St. Kitts and BVI that I know about. And I will tell you this read, Google and you will find out that there is a worldwide shortage of water. Thanks to what is happening here with the RO plants and re-piping, all Antiguans and Barbudans will sing Gaston Browne’s vision in 5 to 10 years when we will be one of the few countries in the world with a regular supply of water. Read, Antiguans, read. Educate yourselves and stop being un-informed and subject to the opinions of stupid people.
And when I told the fool (@less we forget)
That Antigua should have been 10-15 years ahead of where it is now, that joker seems to have no clue of what I was talking about.
Well here you are joker..your own PM saying the same thing I was explaining to your thick headed self.
If this Government has spent all the revenue they got from the growing GDP of Antigua wisely, these pipes should have been tackled in the peek of Antigua’s economic boom between 2013-2020.
That was a full 7 years of a growing GDP, but all now Antigua’s infrastructure is way behind, and whoefully inadequate.
So, @leas wee forget.
Where did all that revenue went, because it’s certainly not into Antigua’s infrastructure, because here we are still with dirt roads and old degraded water pipes..
Hear it from your own PM.
What’s the purpose of bragging about Antigua’s great economy, when people still can’t get water?
But I know where the money went..straight to the Chinese Government, while Antiguan’s drive on dirt roads and hope that water is turned on longer than 20 minutes.