Submitted by Anthony Davis Taps in some districts in Boscobel, St. Peter, have been dry since May this year, yet some residents continue to receive Barbados Water Authority bills as high as $238 in some cases. – Barbados Today […] At the end of the Editorial in Barbados TODAY dated October 13, 2015, headlined “On…
Taps in some districts in Boscobel, St. Peter, have been dry since May this year, yet some residents continue to receive Barbados Water Authority bills as high as $238 in some cases. – Barbados Today
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At the end of the Editorial in Barbados TODAY dated October 13, 2015, headlined “On tackling our growing water woes” it states: “We also look forward to the day when the BWA, like other utility companies on the Island, finally comes under the purview of the Fair Trading Commission.”
First let me say that the Barbados Water Authority (BWA) is trampling on the human rights of those persons who are not getting clean drinking water for months, because this is what it says in “The human right to water and sanitation” :
“On 28 July, 2010, through resolution 64/292, the UN General Assembly explicitly recognized the human right to water and sanitation, and acknowledged that drinking water and sanitation are essential to the realization of all human rights.”
There is also the International Decade for Action “WATER FOR LIFE” 2005 – 2015.
I would suggest that the BWA gets its act together, before Barbados ends up at the bottom of the pile again for refusing the populace of this country access to clean drinking water on a daily basis as we have had for decades now. The BWA is also committing two crimes against those who have to go for months without clean drinking water, yet demanding horrendous sums for something they did not receive.
1) Blackmail, because if people do not pay these high bills for something that they did not receive, it then threatens the party in question with turning off his/her water. How can you be so high and mighty to threaten those people although they didn’t get the water? Your threat to turn off their water if they don’t pay for what they did not receive is tantamount to blackmail. A rose by any other name is still a rose.
2) Fraud, because you are demanding money from people for a commodity which they have not received. If I go to some store and purchase a fridge or such an item, and the assistants there tell me that I would receive it the next day, if I don’t get it by the next day, I would go to that store and ask for an explanation, and see how I should move on according to the answer I receive.
You have a commodity which is needed by all living things – especially humans – and you are fiddling while they have to run here and there to get that commodity when it is your bounden duty to make sure that the residents of this island get it – not only the hotels which can owe you hundreds of thousands of dollars and their water will not be turned off.
Also, is the water at Lamberts Pumping Station low or is there a pump problem, because you said it is low, and then someone else said that the water will be back to normal after some pump is fixed. I would like to know what NISE says about the behaviour of those in authority at the Authority!
Or, isn’t NISE allowed to make statements about Government quangos?
I would give them what Jose Mourinho, manager of Chelsea Football Club in the English Premier League gave his players after losing a match. Of the first half he said: “if I was to rate how they played in the first half from 0 to 10, I would give them a minus”, i.e. they didn’t turn up in the first half at all.
Every five minutes you raise the price of water, yet you cannot fix something which has been going on for eons, and we are to say yea and amen to all that you do!
How would you like to have to drive somewhere in order to get a “shower” under a standpipe, or have to waste your gasoline – although you would certainly be driving a vehicle for which we have to pay – and go to another district to fetch murky water which you cannot drink?
Will you be reimbursing those persons who have to drive to stand pipes to get water, or to relatives to shower?
The other problem is that there are too many hotels and condominiums on this little island.
Instead of doing as Sue Springer says “build more and bigger brand name hotels” – the majority of those on the island are not brand names according to the report, with Fairmont hotels coming in at 49 – we need to have a moratorium on the building of hotels here.
1) Hotels need a lot of water to build them
2) They need more to run them, because some of them have two or three restaurants, two or three bars, two or three swimming pools, golf course, and tennis court.
We can do without the all-inclusives altogether!
They are a bane of the stand-alone bars, restaurants, taxis, clothes and jewellery sellers.
I also have a big problem with the Pure Hotel and Spa which is supposed to be building nine 6-storey blocks on the promontory overlooking Foul Bay!
Those will be condominiums, and I therefore do not see why they should need a 17-acre beachfront.
Those who own condos do not all come at the same time like tourists do, so you are wasting our good beach by giving it to them.
Another thing is that they will not need as much personnel as a hotel, and all of the foreign exchange will be going out of the island.
Also, according to the Burnside Mangrove Pond Green Energy Complex & Beautification Programme
Environmental Impact Assessment Outline Review
TCDPO Ref: 1123/07/2013C, “waste generation is closely linked to population, though for Barbados, tourism contributes a disproportionate quantity of waste. A rule-of-thumb is that each tourist generates roughly three times the waste of a local person in the same period of time.”
The Minister of the Environment would have us believe that we are the only ones who produce waste in this country.
It is also important to note the following:
1. Barbados is the only/one of the few islands in the region with aquifers, i.e. natural underground storage areas of water like Harrison’s and Cole’s caves.
2. Before humans settled here flash floods had cut ravines and gullies to feed the aquifers over millennia.
3. The plantation system with canes took a couple of centuries to realize that digging of wells is useful to maintain water underground.
4. The majority of these wells have not been cleared in a long time, and some are no longer known. The overflow of water should be harnessed and guided to the aquifers.
5. The 40% of water which escapes from broken pipes goes back to the aquifers as they are underground.
6. The aquifer will not go dry as at the bottom is sea water. We know that we are low when we start getting brackish water, and that has never happened.
7. Use of water is a topic which will deal with recycling the water after it reaches the home, e.g. washing machine and kitchen water going to water the plants or used for flushing toilets.
Water which goes into the ground is not wasted as it will find its way to the aquifers.
…and what are the people doing about it…? Nothing as usual…! Loads of “long talk” no action…!!!
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pieceuhderockyeahright
@ Shaft
I will respond here with what I will call
“A NEW ROAD AS DEFINED BY MADAME JUSTICE CORNELIUS”
I am not going to rehash what she has proposed to do regarding the Remand Stopgap in our justice system, but say that she is proposing a new action plan to resolve the problem in our courts
There are two existing technologies regarding water harvesting (1) for homes and the other for (2) communities
The first takes any type of water and makes it potable while the second uses sea water which we in Barbados have in abundance
The same way that Justice Cornelius had taken things into her hands to chart a new way Shaft per what is a problem, WITHOUT A LOT OF LONG TALK, do you thinks that there is any single Bajan at the UWI or in the community at large, or some NGO, with the communal instinct of Madame Cornelius to ignore “the inefficiencies of the system” which have been with us for all these years and to craft a similar “New Way” for this Water shortage that will ensure that it never happens again?
Shaft, is it so much to ask the Global Environmental Fund at the United Nations Developed Program in Hastings to fund six community based pilots in Haynesville, Bayville, the Pine, Crabhill, Deacons and one on the Boardwalk in the City for the smaller potable water units (of course potable here not being defined by Clare Cow-and her Psychic)???
And is it too much to repurpose part of the Graeme Hall sanctuary to channel sea water from the sea into a small form plant there to water the agricultural land up by Top Ridge Christ Church or develop a plant at the Spring Hall Land Lease project??
But that would require men of vision, who also had balls, which a crippling dependence on political parties these 50 years post independence, seems to have denuded us off.
As a man who has taken on the moniker of the legendary? Black Actor Jim Brown, De ole man invites you to rub your bald crotch with my bald crotch as part of the group who are in that what are the people doing about it mindset an ARE NOT part of The Cornelius New Way to solutions
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Well Well & Consequences
Piece…tell them you didnot need 2, 3 or 10 degrees or titles to figure that out and neither did Justice Cornelius…lol
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pieceuhderockyeahright
@ Well Well
Brumley Stand Pipe some good licks in yuh ass and de ability tuh read
CAIRO] Researchers at Alexandria University in Egypt have unveiled a cost-effective desalination technology which can filter highly salty water in minutes.
The technology is based on membranes containing cellulose acetate powder, produced in Egypt. The powder, in combination with other components, binds the salt particles as they pass through, making the technique useful for desalinating seawater.
“The membrane we fabricated can easily be made in any laboratory using cheap ingredients, which makes it an excellent option for developing countries,” says Ahmed El-Shafei, an associate professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering in Alexandria University, and an author of the study.”
Now if dem phvckers at UWI was up death doing someting wid de guvment $500 million a year in education instead uh trying to sleep wid all de peeple girl chilrun are is reading well, dem wudda write a letter to de University of Alexandria axing to collaborate pun a pan Caribbean project funded under a Small Island Developing States grant under the IDB s Sustainable Cities grant initiative
But Sir Hilary and all uh dem Deans interested in giving out Ph.D. S to ineffective czars at the Caribbean Export Development agency and other doggie suck up specialists
Wunna see why like peeple like Justice Cornelius?
I writing annuder book called “Massa Day Dead but today be Head Niggah Day..”
I did was write Alvin Cummins to see if he did was gine help de ole man wid a referral to de same peeple dat publish he books but, since I doan say much good tings bout he heah pun BU, I en tink dat he gine be too supportive uh me request.
I did was write de Nation Publishing Company but I shame tuh share wid Wunna de cuss words dat dem sen back tuh me I still trying to suk out who sign de letter…so far I mek out Viv…ne and Git….s but de ole eyes cyan mek out de rest
@Shaft (who’s de man dat won’t cop out when dere is danger all about…right on)
Projects like dese ent hard tuh tink up but it is bright peeple like you who abdicating Wunna responsibility tuh guvment
Now tell me.
You tink that a man wid he pants up under he armpits like Jepter Ince, or a Big head boy like Darcy Boyce, or a smiley tweets fellah like Dale Marshall or one uh dem nitwits cyan tink up uh sumting like dis? Can you dig it man…right on
But you is a complicated man and no one understands you like you woman…
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Colonel Buggy
The Barbados Government Government’s Guarantee 3 full tanks or 5 minutes ,which ever comes first http://i.imgur.com/dGegAhY.jpg?1
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Well Well & Consequences
Piece….the professor at the university of Alexandria is not only reiterating how cost effective it would be to produce the ingredients, but how usefuĺ it will bè to developìng countries lìke Barbados that is surrounded only sea by water.
The downside: true to form all the usual suspects on the island will crawl out of their holes and jump in front of everyone to monopolize the financial side, the leaders will turn it into a scam, poor bajans will end up paying dearly for sea water, which is free, converted to drinkable water which is cheap to process. They will not see the benefits of this new technology, only the part that allows them to selfishly exploit..
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pieceuhderockyeahright
@ Well Well
No man “monopolizes” GOD.
I don’t know how many of us see what is unfolding around us but the technology that is constantly a-birthing each day around us is changing the power elite and once unshakable hegemonies
Oil is dying and it is only those who lead the research and licensing of technology, of which grouping UWI with its technology development officers like witless Sonia Johnson IS NOT A PART OF, it is these who will reap the revenues of the new age.
Why you think Tessler has licensed his technology to all the car manufacturers??
Where there is no vision the people perish!!!
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Well Well & Consequences
Piece….let your grandson enlighten you about just how far reaching technology has become, it has shrunk the world to the size of a quarter. One kid I know just out of university, sits in one corner with a computer and works for several countries around the world, that is what governments in the Caribbean should be focused on but they are too busy swimming in slimy politics and fail to see the changes. I myself was shocked to see the transition, if you blinked, you missed it, the world has moved on. Politicians in the real world can no longer tell one lie to be elected, that’s called a paradigm shift, check out Ben Carson, under a microscope.
The ones in the Caribbean believe themselves to be priviliged and above it all, including the law…steupss.
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Exclaimer
@ pieceuhderockyeahright November 7, 2015 at 4:07 PM,
“I don’t know how many of us see what is unfolding around us but the technology that is constantly a-birthing each day around us is changing the power elite and once unshakable hegemonies”
You may be getting on a bit but I admire how you continue to show an interest in new discoveries and continue to track what is happening in the world.
In the UK you will find a surprisingly significant minority of the UK population who have structured their lifestyle to cohabit in communities who share their values. These individuals have a strong dislike of their governments and commercial duopolies. They have correctly concluded that these two monolithic structures are the constant enemy of the masses.
For over forty years these communities have co-existed with the natural environmental. Many of these groups live off-grid or tap into the grid system without being addicted to it.
These cooperative communities recycle their own human waste; grow, harvest and preserve their own food; design and build their own homes which takes into account natural lighting, passive heat gain and cooling in order to minimise the energy consumption of the building. In some cases they may manufacture their own solar panels and wind-turbines; they self-market themselves and do not wait passively to be employed by the state or a private enterprise; they generate, harvest and conserve their water whilst minimising their water supply. To all intent and purposes they are self-sufficient.
As you have stated Piece the technology is out there. All it takes are a couple of Bajans to collaborate and to form partnerships. Once a critical mass has been reached Barbadians will no longer need to be represented by those two dinosaur political parties. They, the politician, would have become surplus to requirement.
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John
It is also important to note the following:
Barbados is the only/one of the few islands in the region with aquifers, i.e. natural underground storage areas of water like Harrison’s and Cole’s caves.
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I wouldn’t class Harrisons Cave and Coles Cave as aquifers. It is a long time since the Public Water Supply has come from there. What they do is channel water underground via the underground stream you see to the sheet water area which is what I would class as an area with an aquifer.
Before humans settled here flash floods had cut ravines and gullies to feed the aquifers over millennia.
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How is this known if there were no humans here?!!
…. you are wrong!!
It is my belief that retreating sea levels created caves underground and caused collapses … Arch Cot is a modern day example. Surface topography channeled water from collapse to collapse. Some Gullies have vertical drops, not huge, but quite different if you walk them. I think those drops indicate a collapse. Same way fresh water travels underground so too does seawater.
The plantation system with canes took a couple of centuries to realize that digging of wells is useful to maintain water underground.
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The reason drainage wells were dug in the past is to prevent land from becoming waterlogged. The Gully system is one gigantic system of wells when it isn’t diverting excess run off to the sea.
It is only after Cholera in 1854 that a concerted effort to understand the geology of the island was made. Senn in 1946 (almost a century later) first formally explained how it worked. Belle may have been just prior to Senn but all the West Coast Wells followed. Bowmanston was discovered more by accident than design in the late 1800’s. Read Senn for history …. check Public Library.
The majority of these wells have not been cleared in a long time, and some are no longer known. The overflow of water should be harnessed and guided to the aquifers.
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Wherever water ponds on the island will probably have a well that needs cleaning!! You probably won’t find too many wells in St. George and St. Thomas, in the valley perhaps, the rock is extremely cracked and fissured and hence porous.
No wells in the Scotland District to speak off. Soil Conservation dug “wells” to assist in underground drainage in some areas like Sedge Pond, under Cherry Tree Hill and Parks.
The 40% of water which escapes from broken pipes goes back to the aquifers as they are underground.
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Actually, you are more than 50% wrong!!
Leaks in the Scotland District head straight for the sea, mostly on the surface as much of that area is impervious to water!!
In St. Philip, if the leaks occur between the Halton Pumping Station and the sea then the leaked water will go into the sea.
In Christ Church with no pumping stations it probably all goes into the sea.
Much of St. Michael, ditto.
Any leaks along Highway 1 along the west coast go into the sea, perhaps underground, but they go into the sea!!
St. Lucy …. the closest pumping station is Alleynedale.
Go to River Bay St. Lucy and watch some of the leaks go into the sea if you don’t believe me. Most will get there underground.
The only parishes where your thesis is true are St. George and St. Thomas, maybe 2/7ths of the island!!
So, I think you are probably 70% off in your thesis … as they say, a miss is as good as a mile!!
The aquifer will not go dry as at the bottom is sea water. We know that we are low when we start getting brackish water, and that has never happened.
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It may become unusable but it won’t go dry!!! WHO sets levels for salinity above which water is not fit for human consumption. I’ve heard somewhere that if you drink too much sea water you go mad …. maybe that might explain it!!
Use of water is a topic which will deal with recycling the water after it reaches the home, e.g. washing machine and kitchen water going to water the plants or used for flushing toilets.
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All good … probably something as simple as increasing the water rates might work even bigger wonders!!
Water which goes into the ground is not wasted as it will find its way to the aquifers.”
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… or the sea!!!!
In the case of water going into the ground in the Scotland District, 1/7th of the land area of Barbados it is the sea …… it is not wasted … it is available to be taken up into the atmosphere where it can precipitate over Barbados …… or of course, the sea or any other land mass … but it isn’t wasted … part of the Water Cycle!!
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MR.C
Yet another sad situation, that only talk and more talk WITHOUT ACTION. I was talking to a few friends the other day on how something that THE MOST HIGH has given us, man has taken over and CAPITALIZED on big time. You make others PAY for water that was places here on this earth for all. The real truth is THAT NOTHING IS FREE; Not as long as the Government itself will make you pay, or pass it to a private company while they will gain from the SUFFERING OF OTHERS.
THIS SUCKS BIG TIME… It seem that Barbados is going BACKWARDS in areas that they were strong in years ago. And NOTHING is going to change for the BETTERMENT of others, because it seems to be CRYSTAL CLEAR that it’s all about the ELITE FEW,OR SELECTED FEW. Laws are only DOCUMENTED, but NOT IMPLEMENTED for the rights of all.
Remember this song by Teddy Pendergrass: “WAKE UP EVERY BODY,NO MORE SLEEPING IN BED. NO MORE BACKWARDS THINKING. TIME FOR THINKING AHEAD.” SERIOUSLY, this is the ONLY way you’ll ever see any action.. If and when YOU ever wake up from dreaming, wishing, and hoping that changes are going to be made without YOU WAKING UP AND DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT;
For your information, the Government, and the others who claims the rights to Barbados aren’t going to do NOTHING FOR YOU, UNLESS YOU TAKE A STANCE FOR YOURSELF FOR A CHANGE.
IF YOU DO NOTHING, YOU GET NOTHING IN RETURN.. ACTIONS SPEAKS LOUDER THAN WORDS.. “JUST KEEPING IT REAL;”
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Vincent Haynes
John November 8, 2015 at 12:01 PM #
Note those were some points I made to Mr Davis.
Your belief on retreating sea water makes the point moot as you were not present either.
The Scotland District has a water catchment at Bawdens and another one at Greenland and hopefully with some heavy rain the landfill at Greenland will become another one and yes the rest of water does head to the sea via long pond.
The main point that has been made,one that we all can agree on,is that we need to harness and maintain our supply of water in good order.
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Colonel Buggy
I’ve also heard the present head of BWA , explained that some of the streams in the northern parishes flows towards the west coast,while others flow towards the east coast. This ,he said is desirable as the water flow acts as a seal to prevent the ingress of sea water into the coastal aquifers.
Does this theory still,hold water,since in the recent past we have seen a number of such streams which would normally flow down the east coast side, being diverted into a dam.
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Vincent Haynes
@Colonel Buggy November 9, 2015 at 5:14 PM #
During a reasonable rainfall some will go to the dams and long pond will still get a torrent.
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Colonel Buggy
During the days when Barbados was not so bushy headed, on a clear day when you stood atop Bissex Hill, where District F Police Station was, and looked south, towards Castle Grant , a myriad of streams could be seen snaking their way towards the Jose River-Frizers Valley. Some of these streams eventually go underground emerging in the Atlantic bound Joes River. These streams are still there. No attempt has ever been made to conserve this supply of fresh water.
The photo below shows ,ironically, an abundance of water at Laynes Bridge , in the water starved parish of St Joseph. http://i.imgur.com/ca8rpCX.jpg?1
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