est. 2007

Barbados Underground

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Leaking Waste on the South Coast, AGAIN

There is no need to be prolix about the importance placed on local health authority to prevent liquid waste leaking onto our streets. It presents a health hazard to locals and visitors -bear in mind where Rendezvous is located.  It makes taxpayers question the managerial and financial ability and capacity to manage the sewerage infrastructure.…

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Manhole @Rendezvous 25/08/2017 6PM

There is no need to be prolix about the importance placed on local health authority to prevent liquid waste leaking onto our streets. It presents a health hazard to locals and visitors -bear in mind where Rendezvous is located.  It makes taxpayers question the managerial and financial ability and capacity to manage the sewerage infrastructure. It raises the issue of trust in local public officials who promised last year the problem of leaking waste on the South Coast was fixed when the BTII gave a broke Barbados Water Authority (BWA) 2 million dollars to repair the infrastructure.

The embedded image was captured within the last 24 hours at the start of a weekend that will see CARIFESTA reaching its ‘climax’. The leaking waste water and the unholy stench violating the atmosphere in the area of Rendezvous Post Office is a national embarrassment.

 

113 responses to “Leaking Waste on the South Coast, AGAIN”

  1. Gabriel Avatar
    Gabriel

    The last General Manager of the Waterworks that was allowed to do his job independent of political interference was Nickie Sealy,a thoroughbred professional,well trained and highly skilled.Then along came a JA leading the DLP pack and destroyed the public’s confidence in the Waterworks ever since 1988/89.Ask Erskine Sandiford what caused him to ruin the Waterworks and the public service.At the same time ask anybody in this current DLP government why they cannot get the Waterworks sorted out irrrespective of if it’s one Minister there or two like they had not long ago.The church ought to hold a day of prayer every week from now until elections are called and a new dispensation is given.Until then we spinning we tops in mud.

  2. angela Skeete Avatar
    angela Skeete

    Poor planning was inherent is the now disastrous results of tge plant just look around and count the number of businnes inclunding residences and just imagine all of the occupants trying to dispose human waste in a sewer plant with a capacity the size of a topsy.
    Then throw all the other household waste to it.

  3. David Avatar
    David

    BWA DOING ITS BEST TO PREVENT SEWAGE LEAKS

    Tue, 07/18/2017 – 12:00am Barbados1
    THE Barbados Water Authority (BWA) has done “all that is humanly possible” to avert the possibility of another sewage leak on the South Coast of this island.
    However, Manager of the BWA’s Wastewater Division, Patricia Inniss, warned that in the case of unusually high amounts of rainfall, “there was only that much human beings can do”.
    “If we have a case where there is not enough drainage of the sluice gate where there is excessive build up of water, which has been the problem, if the gates are not opened and there is not sufficient drainage and then we watch a rising of the levels over hours, that rising eventually will get into the sewage networks, even though we have cleared all the passages,” she told the media, during a conference at the BWA’s headquarters yesterday.
    At the end of last year, South Coast businesses and residents were faced with overflows of effluence onto the streets as excessive rainfall damaged a pump and flowed into the collection system.
    This pump has since then been fixed and with the regular cleaning of the outfalls and the Drainage Unit opening the sluice gates to reduce any rising levels of water in the swamp periodically, Inniss insisted that what could be done was being done to prevent a repeat of this occurrence and disclosed that a town hall meeting will soon be scheduled for residents.
    She further said that in a move to address infiltration problems within the sewer networks, CCTV operators were currently being sent down to look at major areas where there were cracks, so these could be fixed.
    “Even as we attempt to block perfectly our sewer network which is a closed and sanitary network, once there are excessive amounts of water on the surface, overtime it will get in the network and overtime the sewer system will act as a drainage system, and then there is the possibility of an overflow. What we have found is that in January this year, where in half an hour we had an overflow in the network, what we are seeing now in four and five hours of rain, our networks are still holding,” she said.
    Inniss pointed out simply that as long as the networks became a drainage system and not a sewer system, overflows would be possible.
    She therefore pointed out that drainage issues were being worked at in Graeme Hall, Peronne Village and in Bridgetown, noting that members of the public were creating additional headaches for her department and that of the Drainage Unit through indiscriminately dumping materials that blocked the outfall system.
    “We have had mops, debris, pampers, needles, … every considerable item in the sewer network that you can imagine,” she said.
    Quick to say she was not assigning blame to anyone, Inniss nevertheless stressed that all Barbadians have the responsibility of maintaining the sewer system. (JMB)

  4. angela Skeete Avatar
    angela Skeete

    Everything said in that article points to poor planning which was not taken with enough seriousness the size of the plant capacity and its ability to handle large volumes of raw sewage including weather related problems due to heavy down pours
    The only alternative would be that of constructing a new plant . but that would not happen given the economic

  5. FearPlay Avatar
    FearPlay

    “The leaking waste water and the unholy stench violating the atmosphere in the area of Rendezvous Post Office is a national embarrassment.” I beg to differ and offer as more appropriate “A NATIONAL DISGRACE”!

  6. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    @ David,

    In 2016 the city estimated 2.35 million cubic metres, or 942 Olympic sized swimming pools, of raw sewage and stormwater overflowed into Toronto waterways from combined sewer overflows.

    Barbados does not want to send overflow from the sewerage treatment plant into the Ocean so it ends up in the road.

    I have no idea what should be done.

    Maybe SOLUTIONS BARBADOS has the solution.

  7. David Avatar
    David

    @Hants

    Contributing to the problem as Patricia Inniss pointed out is the overflow caused by rain and the inoperable Sluice Gate. This is a problem that has gotten worse under this government. The fact that the government is broke and cannot perform routine maintenance does not help.

  8. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    @ David ” The fact that the government is broke and cannot perform routine maintenance does not help.”

    They may be broke but they will find the money when there is an outbreak of “disease”

  9. Sargeant Avatar
    Sargeant

    Just as I was planning to go back in the water! Where is the rain that foreshadows these issues? The place is dry as a bone

  10. angela Skeete Avatar
    angela Skeete

    Maintenance can only go so far but as i stated the problem lies within the context of
    Capacityvs volume which is at the heart of the issue givt cannot control large volumes of sewage and waste being emptied in a topsy bowl daily.

  11. June Naime Avatar
    June Naime

    “Data is not information, information is not knowledge, knowledge is not understanding, understanding is not wisdom.” Clifford Stoll

    What I have been sharing with you is to take us from Data & information to Understanding, the Application of Understanding leads to WISDOM.

    I want to share a story so you may see what I am talking about: A man came home one day to find his home flooded and he called his neighbours for help and each man had a Different Solution for the problem. Soon there was a crowd.

    The First Neighbour said “I will get a Mop and a Bucket”.

    The next one said , “I will Sweep Out The Water.”

    Another said . “I Will Get a Wet Vacuum Cleaner”.

    And they all tried their best but to No Avail until a man with a little understanding went in the house Looked For the CAUSE OF THE PROBLEM, found a tap that was left on and turned it off and the flood was abated.

    The Moral of the Story is that there are Many Voices that Offer a Solution and even help, some only watch on the side line but there are few with understanding. Seek for Understanding you will then be able to see Clearly!

    Do not get Bogged Down in Issues (in this case it involves a lot of shit) and the solving of those issues until you Know The Root Cause. The application of understanding leads to wisdom!

    When you grasp what Socialism is and what it does and Causes the Slow Process of Rot you will have understanding and the application of that understanding will lead to Wisdom as Issues are somewhere between Information and Knowledge.

    Do not Continue to Dismiss the Root Cause by dumb-in it down and not paying attention to the Relevance of it otherwise we will always find our self-immersed in Sewage, or the next Issue of the Day Any Politician Wants You to Talk About.

  12. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    @ Sargeant,

    If you in Barbados you can go to Bath,Conset Bay or Crane Beach…..if you can swim lol.

  13. Sargeant Avatar
    Sargeant

    @Hants

    I am in Bim but I am a South Coast man who Will also venture to the West Coast. This year I am racking up frequent flyer miles from the eclipse in the USA West to eating Eclipse biscuits in Bim

  14. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    Raw sewage in the Ocean or Lake is a problem. Swimming is “optional”

    Raw sewage on the road is a crisis.

    Cars driving through sewage will splash it onto the sidewalk. People will walk through it and take it home.

  15. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    @ angela
    “..g(o)vt cannot control large volumes of sewage and waste being emptied in a topsy bowl daily.”
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
    Perhaps not….
    But if they could muzzle Carson, yourself and your ‘Naime’ intellectual partner, surely shiite levels could be reduced sufficiently to let the damn system work…..

  16. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    @ Sargeant,

    enjoy your travels. West coast beaches are good options.

  17. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    @ Bush Tea,

    Not even Kraigg Brathwaite could play that ball you just bowled. lol

  18. June Naime Avatar
    June Naime

    The Problem With Bush in the Brains is that people like that are a Distraction only Offering Gramoxone as a Slave for the Nations Wounds…

    No real Solutions just Poisonous Diatribe!

  19. Chad99999 Avatar
    Chad99999

    Barbados used to have one sewage treatment plant. For Bridgetown.

    When that plant was taxed to capacity, additional treatment plants were built specifically for the south coast and for the west coast to make sure that there would be no groundwater contamination and no uncontrolled leakage of untreated sewage to the nearshore zone.

    So what happened? Is this a case of inadequate engineering design? As usual, David launches a topic without providing background and context.

  20. Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger. Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger.

    Chadster…ya are not American but ya know about their sewage system, nuclear smoke stacks and everything else that does not concern you, i have more right than you do in that regard and still know more about what is going on in the island re the neglect and lack of maintenance without any need to demean Caribbean people……ya not American….ya not Haitian yet ya on here waxing knowledgeable about their sewage system…

    Ya may want to take some time, do some research and find out what is wrong with Barbados’ lone sewage plant in Lakes Folly from it’s inception until now….instead of looking to be spoon fed information when you claim to kniw everything about everywgere and everyone else……ya must have bought ya degrees if they exist..

    Angela Yardfowl and her Crazy Criminal can always be sent to wash down the area by Rendezvous post office, it would give them both something more constructive to do.

  21. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    @ WW&C
    Woman,….when the hell do you sleep…?
    LOL
    ha ha ha

  22. Well Well @ Consequences Observing Blogger Avatar
    Well Well @ Consequences Observing Blogger

    lol….that`s the problem…i sleep too early and for too long, so ya know what happens to my brain right, no one stands a chance.

  23. angela Skeete Avatar
    angela Skeete

    As usual David bowling against the crease and his long arm which holds political poop is seeping out

  24. June Naime Avatar
    June Naime

    DEVIL AND HIS MINIONS DONE SLEEP EVEN PUN SUNDIES!!! T

    HE PROBLEM WITH THE WC IS THAT IT JUST HAS A CATCHMENT FOR DEIFICATION!

    angela Skeete TO WW&C…

    “The only criminal around here is you.
    You tell more Lies than Lucifer….

    WW&C shut to f..k up you are so overbearing and annoying maybe stuffing a sock in your mouth would slow the flow of your uncontrollable diarrhea of the mouth. …

    … do you ever take a bathe. Your constant stench emits by way of my computer. David can you put a muzzle on this ole heifer”…

    WW&C Shut to.F.ck up out of the 147 comments you have posted eight five … you are so overbearing and annoying. Put a zip on it …”

    AT LEAST I AM NOT THE ONLY SMELLING THE STENCH… IT WOULD TAKE AEONS TO CLEAN OUT THAT CESSPIT OF A BRAIN THAT KEEPS FEASTING ONLY ON RAW PUTRID SEWAGE!

    …MAKE ONE SERIOUSLY CONSIDER THAT THIS WC IS A FAVORED AGITATOR HERE.

  25. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    @ Bush Tea,

    De 3 prong at de Garrison redirected Harvey.

  26. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    This is still Hurricane season.

    The Government at a very minimum should clean the water courses, roadside gutters in

    preparaion for the inevitable rain that will come.

  27. David Avatar
    David

    @Hants

    The reality is that as part of government’s austerity many of the workers from Drainage were sent home.

  28. Kevin Avatar
    Kevin

    There is still some cleaning of the drains that goes on but on a much smaller scale. Drains were cleaned from Worthing down to Maxwell. HOWEVER, all of the muck and garbage that was pulled from the drains were left on the sidewalk. The muck on Worthing road was removed after a week. On Maxwell road a lot of the muck was NOT removed from the sidewalk and the rains came and washed that same muck into the road and back into the drains and into the road. For e.g the side walks in the area of of St. Dominic’s church in Maxwell. That stretch of road is filled with lots of silt and dried muck.

  29. David Avatar
    David

    @Kevin

    Your comment ties in with lack of resources and cutbacks at Drainage and NCC.

  30. John Avatar
    John

    Believe it or not although they are sewage manholes it may not be sewage flowing from them!!

    The simplest way to understand what is going on is to see them when there is nothing flowing from them.

    There is no evidence of any leaks being fixed, no jack hammers, no delays on the roads but somehow these manholes seem to fix themselves … entirely on their own.

    Go look in the canal that connects the swamp to the sea and you will realise that when the level is over 0.7 metres, the manholes flow!!

    When the tractor clears a path to the sea for the level to drop it does so at low tide.

    I have seen the level fall as low as 0.4 metres after the channel has been cleared.

    The tractor then leaves and as the tide comes in it deposits sand and recloses the mouth of the canal.

    However, the level in the swamp rises with the tide and stops once the canal is blocked, I have seen it back at 0.6 to 0.7 metres 12 hours after seeing it at 0.4 metres.

    So the tractor doesn’t really cause the level of the swamp to drop by much.

    Any rain in the 1156 acre catchment gets amplified in the small area (the swamp) into which it is concentrated.

    So I have my doubts that we are seeing sewage flowing from the sewage manholes, just the result of water level rises in the nearby swamp.

    Does it may any sense stopping it?

    Probably not, it is just a wet season issue.

    By the time dry season rolls around, it will disappear.

    …. having said all of that, the other way for the level in the swamp to rise other than by rainfall is if sewage pumped into it … in other words, it may be the result of problems at the sewage plant!!

    So the flowing/weeping manholes could possibly be the result of sewage problems.

  31. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ Kevin August 27, 2017 at 1:41 PM
    “There is still some cleaning of the drains that goes on but on a much smaller scale. Drains were cleaned from Worthing down to Maxwell. HOWEVER, all of the muck and garbage that was pulled from the drains were left on the sidewalk. The muck on Worthing road was removed after a week. On Maxwell road a lot of the muck was NOT removed from the sidewalk and the rains came and washed that same muck into the road and back into the drains and into the road. For e.g the side walks in the area of of St. Dominic’s church in Maxwell. That stretch of road is filled with lots of silt and dried muck.”

    Isn’t the dirty stinking ugly and woefully unsanitary picture you just painted to every fine detail a replica of Barbados today?

    It just goes to show the crassness and classlessness of the people in charge of Barbados today.

    If this set of dirty black clowns can’t even fix something as basic as keeping the place clean as they vigorously did in massa days to impress their white bosses how can you expect them to pull the country out of its current dire economic mess?

    We challenge you to name another competing tourism destination in the Caribbean that has become ugly and dirty like Barbados over the last 9 years.

    Because you are poor it does not mean you have to be dirty and living in the gutter. Justice C G after living in Bermuda must be really pissed off with the way his beloved homeland has degenerated over the last 10 years as far as the public sanitation and general appearance of the country is concerned.

    Whom are you going to blame this time for the ghastly state of horrendously poor public sanitation right in the centre of your tourism belt, the virtual breadbasket of your country?
    Is it going to be Owen Arthur, Mia Mottley, the dirty Guyanese and foreigners from the “low islands” or is it that conveniently-stored bogey man the international economic recession?

    There is something called pride and also something called industry. It seems Barbados has lost both of these traits under the present administration.

    There is one chamber left to be pulled in your game of Russian roulette you are playing with public sanitation in Barbados.

    Continue to dabble in shit with the South Coast and Bridgetown sewage management systems and see what would happen to what’s left of your tourism industry.

    Your country’s wealth is not the people but the good health of its residents. Public sanitation is the sine qua non of good public health, Mess with it and your economic goose will be well cooked. The fire will soon be lit at the Oistins Bay Centre.

  32. David Avatar
    David

    <blockquoteSo the flowing/weeping manholes could possibly be the result of sewage problems.

    John you wrote all the above to say it might one or the other? What about the stench?

  33. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    https://www.theweathernetwork.com/bb/weather/-/bridgetown

    Mon
    Aug 28
    Risk of a thunderstorm

    Tue
    Aug 29
    Risk of a thunderstorm

    Fri
    Sep 1
    Risk of a thunderstorm

    Sat
    Sep 2
    Risk of a thunderstorm

    Sep 3
    Risk of a thunderstorm

  34. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    There is also the option of waiting for a disaster so you could beg fuh help and distribute said “help” as politically strategically required.

  35. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ John August 27, 2017 at 2:59 PM

    It seems you are an “expert” on the South Coast sewage fiasco. So let us ask you an out-of-the-way question:

    Do you think the reason for the sinking road foundation and leaning utility poles many of which are about to collapse like dominoes in a high wind could be a result of underground leaks arising from the fractured pipelines?

    Could these suspected fractures have come about because of the strong pressure imposed by the tidal movements and constant wear and tear from the heavy vehicular traffic on the makeover cart roads?

    Are the materials and connectors made to the requisite high standards to handle these physical challenges posed by the unstable coastal location?

    “Cheap things no good. Good things no cheap.”

  36. 555dubstreet Avatar
    555dubstreet


    ★ Party in the Slum
    ★ Slum (In Dub)

    https://youtu.be/3QFkgZDncUQ

  37. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    Spare a thought for the people of Houston. Absolutely devastating Flooding.

  38. John Avatar
    John

    What appears to be sinking foundation of the road is I believe, the lay of the land.

    If you walk from Big B to the sea past the manholes you realise you are actually going up a hill.

    You are in a depression, the same one which includes the Graeme Hall Swamp.

    I suspect sea level is the reason for the flowing/weeping manholes but in the absence of categorical statements from the authorities about the health of the Sewage plant, sewage can’t be ruled out as a cause.

    I was watching the manholes for days and saw they were dry.

    Then two days ago I saw them start to weep.

    I did not notice any stench out of the ordinary.

    So I am more inclined to think we are witnessing a problem caused by sea level, and the level of water in the swamp/depression.

    We have not had much rain these past few days so I reckon rain is ruled out.

  39. John Avatar
    John

    If pipelines were fractured the manholes would never be dry.

  40. John Avatar
    John

    Remember when the sewage project was done, no dig technology was used to lay the pipes.

    Tunnels were dug in the limestone and pipes put in.

    Limestone is porous so water will find its way in to the tunnels.

    The pipes may be submerged but may be perfectly sound!!

  41. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    http://toronto.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=1196360

  42. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    @ John
    If pipelines were fractured the manholes would never be dry.
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
    If pipelines were fractured, the manholes would be dry when the ground is dry enough to absorb the resulting leakage from the (positive pressure) pipes.

    When the ground is saturated, (which increases the outside hydraulic pressure) not only will this leakage be reduced, but with a high enough pressure, there will be additional ingress of water, which will increase the flow in the pipes and put pressure on the manholes…. resulting in seepage …EVEN BEFORE SURFACE FLOODING.

    If the pipelines were fully intact, there would only be flood ingress where water levels rose above the actual manhole covers.

    Basically the system seems to be leaking into the subsoil (the very thing it was supposed to end from suck wells).

    It is not difficult to predict the kinds of problems in store…..

  43. Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger. Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger.

    And if the government ministers just stand around peering into the sewage holes, along with BWU and ministry of the environment in nstead of doing something about them and fixing them, the sewage seepage will only increase and escalate…..right Bushman.

  44. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    @ WW&C
    Government ministers shiite!!
    Those fellas have been the dumbest of the dumb….. unfortunately for us, they call the shots.

    They (both Bees and Dees) could not even figure out how to build that project from new – when there were unlimited options, techniques and proposals. What chance do you think there is now, of effecting a sound REPAIR of a leaking sewerage system?

    Can you imagine the state of the subsoil around a fractured pipe?
    Are you aware of the techniques used to install those pipes?

    Bushie watched that shiite being built and marvelled at the stupidity…
    It was build with a 5-year timeframe in mind, in Bushie’s humble opinion.

    Lotta shiite!!!
    …literally.

  45. Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger. Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger.

    Lol…at least the ministers will be giving us endless material to beat them over their dumb heads with, on the blogs…lol

  46. Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger. Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger.

    The dummies of government can continue to play political games with raw sewage leakage for as much as they want and as long as they like, the island is in dire need of a wake up call and reality check.

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/gaza-pollution-kills-five-year-old-boy-electricty-sewage-water-crisis-israel-hamas-palestinian-a7916326.html

    “A five-year-old Gazan boy has died after swimming in seawater contaminated by the raw and minimally-treated sewage that is flowing into the Mediterranean thanks to the Gaza Strip’s escalating power crisis.”

  47. John Avatar
    John

    If pipelines were fractured, the manholes would be dry when the ground is dry enough to absorb the resulting leakage from the (positive pressure) pipes.

    +++++++++++++++++++++++

    So why during the wet season with the ground is …. well …. wet ….. would the manholes stop flowing/leaking?

  48. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    Come on John … this is about WATER … something that you understand – not black history…

    It is a complex relationship involving multiple factors.

    …Is the internal pipe pressure greater than the external ambient pressure?
    …how many pumps are on?
    .. what is the capacity being processed?
    .. how high is the water table (external pressure)?
    .. how compact is the area around the leak …?

    So it is more complex than just ‘wet or dry season’ per se…

    Point is that the only way we should see leakage at manholes is where the net internal pressure exceeds the outflow capacity. Bushie simply showed how fractured pipes could conceivably account for such a situation.

    Another possibility is blocked outflow pipes, or excessive pump pressures being applied at the plant end. However one would think that simple pressure measurement systems would trigger alarms – should this be at the case… (although in BBBB-land yuh never know…. )

  49. Well Well @ Consequences Observing Blogger Avatar
    Well Well @ Consequences Observing Blogger

    lol…we keep telling John to stick to something he at least partially understands, but does he listen.

  50. David Avatar
    David

    @Bush Tea

    Don’t forget there is confusion surrounding how many effusers are NOT blocked off the Hilton way.

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