Water service to North Windward almost 100 percent restored

The Central Water and Sewerage Authority (CWSA) has fully restored potable water to communities above the Rabacca Dry River as far as Owia.

The supply to all communities above Rabacca was either destroyed or severely damaged in the aftermath of the volcanic eruptions.

“Heavy rainfall days after the first set of eruptions destroyed the systems; there was no supply to those areas,” Garth Saunders, Manager of the CWSA told SEARCHLIGHT.

However teams from the authority have gradually been restoring the supply which, except for areas between Tourama and the Rabacca Dry River that are supplied from the Perseverance system, are harvested from three separate streams which flow from the slopes of the Soufriere Mountain.

The Perseverance-fed communities were restored in June; communities up to Sandy bay had their water restored by the first week of July, while the Owia system was up and flowing again by the second week of August. Work to restore the supply to Fancy began this week and it is anticipated that this will be completed by month-end or the first week in September.

Despite the restoration of water to homes, Saunders is urging consumers in these communities to ensure that they store water, as mud flows down during the current rainy season will result in disruptions.

He explained also that some “short-term makeshift work” had to be undertaken in some areas “so what is put back in place is not as robust as before the eruption” and the Authority expects there will be “cycles of damage and restoration during the wet season”.

However, the CWSA is currently developing a project to harvest from a ground water well that is located at Overland for the medium to long-term which would make for a more secure, robust, reliable and resilient water supply.