Prime Minister Gaston Browne has outlined his government’s progress and ongoing efforts to address water shortages and improve infrastructure in Antigua and Barbuda.
Speaking on Pointe FM radio, Mr Browne said recent strides in water production, as well as the challenges his administration has faced in funding these improvements.
Mr Browne noted that since taking office, his government has added over 5 million gallons of water to the national supply, currently producing about 8 million gallons daily.
He stated that another 2 million gallons would be added by the end of the year, with an additional 2 million expected by early next year, aiming to reach 12 million gallons per day to fully meet the country’s needs.
He acknowledged the gradual pace of progress, pointing out that water infrastructure is capital-intensive. “At the end of the day, it has cost us millions to build out the water infrastructure,” he said, referencing the financial constraints his administration inherited and the additional impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cash flows.
According to Mr Browne, had the funds been available, the government would have immediately acquired sufficient capacity to address the full demand.
Reflecting on previous administrations, Mr Browne argued that his government’s additions to water infrastructure exceed those of prior governments, criticizing the United Progressive Party (UPP) for a perceived lack of contribution during their time in office.
He also noted that an existing water plant had been damaged during the UPP’s tenure, resulting in a net reduction in supply when they came into power.
“Those who are critical have no moral authority,” Mr Browne stated, emphasizing that his administration has taken steps to rectify long-standing issues.
He assured the public that while progress may appear slow, the government remains committed to enhancing water availability and moving towards self-reliance in water resources.
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Again my fellow Antiguans, all you have to do is block out the unpalatable rhetoric and noise from Prime Minister Browne, and then open your own eyes to witness whether or not his words back up whatever he is telling us.
Quite simple really when you think about it.
Never forget with this unpalatable government; talk is cheaper than cheap …
Brixtonian still speaking TRUTH to POWER.
Exactly how much was spent on what we presently have ? That is our major concern so tell us the truth.
I am not too sure what country the Wurl Bass is talking about? It can’t be Antigua. My area, Rural North rarely gets water. maybe one late night a month. The PM will soon be a resident here where he is building a castle so he will find out. Two departments in this country that need to be farmed out to foreign professionals are APUA and Public Works. And no mention of electricity where there are frequent blackouts. Up to yesterday morning, from 3am to 11 am, the capital city of this economic powerhouse was in darkness.
You see the politicians see themselves as boss, and it’s a pity that Apua don’t have an electricity manager that the other engineers can collaborate with to get clean power out to customers and the same water plants, which will suffer frequent burnt motors because Apua power stability, no power factor correction circuit or voltage regulator device out in the field on the pole where the R.O plants demand high power consumption, the government need to bring in real experience electrical engineers to get Apua on a better footing, one of Antigua’s best engineer that grace the the APUA was Mr George Piggott, and we won’t see that again under this micromanaging of the present electricity manager, carilec officials usually wonder how that guy ever qualify to be electricity manager with none engineering skills, only been an academic for purposes of articulating etc , all the distribution lines come from a passive substation feeding customer and the water plants the same, their is no voltage regulator out in the field for voltage differentiation, so these motors will continue to burn out frequently and costly, plus the power consumption of these plants will take up 40% of hadeed generating capacity making it costly that the Apua have to jump in to bills estimation to offset deficit, if we had a utility commission like Barbados APUA would have folded, because it could do willy nilly with people bill as it does now, I could remember the upp in 2004 wanted to introduce that utility commission, but it went as far as setting up a board that APUA never had, I call on Gaston and all the politicians to demand real engineering from APUA by bringing experts to evaluate and recommend ideas instead of keeping people in possession of entitlement because of politics and family connection, while that is not done, the hadeed’s will continue rake in millions due to technical power loss on the system, even that solar farm would have been beneficial if it has the batteries for transient, and that will also benifit hadeed power station where his generation capacity is stabilized but no benifit to APUA purse because the contract is a written agreement regardless if Apua uses that amount of power.
@Biggs: welcome to the real world, that power outage is because APUA won’t modernize with the time, a time ago Apua was to go into hotline work so that no power is interrupted to the customers, but the Apua staff fought it down because their position was challenged, and we don’t have an electricity manager that is knowledgeable about electricity, where that electricity manager never in his life work near electricity, when that amount of power to the city is suppressed, the hadeed generating engines has to go offline and restart and that takes time which the private power provider could have pinalize APUA for, so it’s for APUA to become the conduit of always getting the power to the customers, I heard it was a slack connection on the line with triple circuit on the poles so the workmen don’t have that institutional capacity to negotiate all that, since the electricity manager himself react to electricity from a phobia prospective and not and engineering one , so too are the workers, if the top slack, the bottom a go slack, in that case of that slack connection, Apua is suppose to have some line covers and load pick up tool and gloves it hot with no power interruption, oops! Only people with that sort of training and the Apua engineering develop agreements and condition of work for the linesmen will such feat be accomplish, but few in Antigua can do that right now, work with the power on. So when people are brought in to implement , Antigua had their own here denied by let’s say it’s fossilized supervisors and engineers who can’t go no further in this era.