Water resource management project launched in Mayreau

A new water resource management project was launched on the island of Mayreau on Sunday, October 29.

The project is titled ‘Adapting to the Effects of Drought through Increasing Water Storage Capacity to Address Climate Change on Mayreau’. The project was submitted by a community group in Union Island, the ‘Union Island Environmental Attackers.

It forms part of the UNDP’s Japan-Caribbean Climate Change Partnership programme and is one of several projects funded under this programme in St Vincent and the Grenadines.

The Mayreau water resource management project’s total budget is US$101,992.59. The aim of the project is to increase the island’s water storage capacity.

It will do this by providing water tanks to private households and public entities that need it most; it will repair the water cistern system, located at the Mayreau Primary School; it will establish a water farm of 10 one thousand gallon tanks at the site of the communal CWSA cistern and will purchase 50 water tanks of 1,000 gallons each, increasing capacity to 50,000 gallons. It will also aid in capacity building on the collection, storage and disinfection of water to Mayreau residents.

The project has a number of priority areas for persons or households who benefit. These include persons or households who have low individual and household income; are unemployed; are headed by females; have low water storage capacity; have a high number of dependents; have barriers to employment, including disabilities, age and dependents.

The project, upon completion, will provide a total of 70,000 gallons of increased water storage capacity on Mayreau.