est. 2007

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Barbados Water Authority Unable to QUICKLY Fix Leaks

The following note was received by the blogmaster today from a BU family member around 10AM. It is self explanatory. The thought which comes to mind – we have our priorities wrong. The BWA built a headquarters for how many million? Yet we are unable to respond to the most basic customer request i.e. fix…

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The following note was received by the blogmaster today from a BU family member around 10AM. It is self explanatory.

The thought which comes to mind – we have our priorities wrong. The BWA built a headquarters for how many million? Yet we are unable to respond to the most basic customer request i.e. fix a leak!

Hi David

My neighbour discovered this water leak on the supply side of their line and notified BWA on Saturday of last week (Feb 11th). They were informed that it would be attended to on Monday of the following week. They called again on Tuesday as no one came by on Monday. On Wednesday, a crew finally visited for a short while and left without resolving the situation.

BWA was called again on Thursday asking for an update. I am told that the response given was “We are under pressure with a lot of leaks so we will get back to you when we can”.

Today is Saturday 16, February and the situation remains unchanged.

Keeping in mind that the average flow rate of a kitchen faucet is 2.2 gallons per minute, is it any wonder that the people of St Joseph, St John and St Andrew are suffering from low water pressure and/or denial of service?

 

72 responses to “Barbados Water Authority Unable to QUICKLY Fix Leaks”

  1. Gabriel Avatar
    Gabriel

    TheO
    If you had ‘boy days’ pitching with marbles especially at primary school,you would likely have heard that a glassy-marble was called a TOY,which morphed in to TAW.In pitching,the turf was about 9 ft in length and consisted of 1)A line (or crease as in cricket) and 3 holes similar to the golf hole.As I recall those holes were 3 ft apart and the pitch was in the form of an upside down T.The game started with ‘eye drops’ to determine whose toy marble dropped closer to the crease.The boy closest to the crease goes first followed by the next closer to the crease etc.One must aim to ‘dine’ each hole at the first attempt and then become ‘killer’.Killer can pose anywhere on the turf and strike any toy whose owner would be automatically ‘out'(of the game)To become ‘killer’,one must dine the 3 holes down the track and turn around and dine the 2 holes coming back toward the crease.If you don’t dine one after the other you have to await your turn again and hope nobody after you becomes ‘killer’.
    The ‘no brush’,were words used in the game when the turf becomes contaminated with bits of soil or dust just as in cricket,the action of bowling wears down the pitch.So to be sure the marble will go into the hole at the first attempt,a boy would brush away any debris first.When the game is reduced to two contenders only,the game becomes extremely competitive so an alert contender not wanting his opponent to win,would be watching for this advantage and call out ‘down taw,huh brush’.So no brushing would be permitted.It was a rule that was not breached because the penalty was loss of the game by that boy who,when he pitched would call out ‘dine like a diner’, if he was able to brush and make smooth the path of the marble to the hole.
    A variation of the marble game was drawing circle (called a Ling)and placing buttons in the circle and whoever hits the button can claim ownership.Lots of shirts at school had no buttons as a result of this game.

  2. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    @TheoG
    taw not tar….think marbles….

    seems WPress has ceased remembering us?

  3. Vincent Codrington Avatar
    Vincent Codrington

    @ Gabriel a 17 Feb at 3:56 PM

    Thanks for confirming , with the anecdotal evidence, the good management at BWA under Mr, Sealy.

  4. Gabriel Avatar
    Gabriel

    Mr Blogmaster
    I sought to explain for TheO,the source of “down taw,nuh brush”.Can you retrieve?

  5. David Avatar
    David

    You just triggered a flood of memories Gabriel. Had some boys could pitch and spin the marble for it to drop spin and stick.

  6. Vincent Codrington Avatar
    Vincent Codrington

    @ Gabriel

    You are really an angel. Surely there was a more salacious origin of the term “down Tau, no brush”? Of course, I do not expect you to disclose it in the B U.

  7. Lexicon Avatar
    Lexicon

    Gabriel

    I remember that game quite will … played the game in District A after primary school in the late 70s, but more so than that I don’t too often hear people commenting about fishing at the pond during the weekend and setting bird traps.

    The what about:
    1) Mango Season
    2) Cane Season
    3) Ackee Season

    I am quite sure all of us have our own unique stories to tell based on the landscape where we were raised… Being born and bred in the town area of Barbados … Going to the pond was a big deal for kids in my time … We would go there with our skillet on weekend and caught the Thousands, Mollies, Calapians … then we would go to the Dippy behind the Biscuit Factory which run from Roebuck Street right down through White Park Road to really caught the good fish … Those were the good old days of Barbados of long ago …

  8. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ Vincent Codrington February 19, 2019 1:57 AM
    @ Gabriel
    “You are really an angel. Surely there was a more salacious origin of the term “down Tau, no brush”? Of course, I do not expect you to disclose it in the B U.
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    It sounds as if you VC, the ‘virtuous Christian’, were a fully-paid up member in the “Harry’s Nitery” club for discerningly sophisticated gentlemen.

    We are quite sure that the modern ‘high-flying Virgins’ staying short on the Carlisle Bay would be thoroughly enjoying the peep shows had the euphemistic Harry’s tea room not lost its pride of place on the strip for ole Barbadiana night life.

  9. Gabriel Avatar
    Gabriel

    Miller
    Harry would advertise in the dailies and he used “Down taw,nuh brush” and “Hiddy biddy shut up yuh lap tight tight tight” to wet the appetite of the undiscerning.
    Memories of being sat on but can’t touch for Harry to see.After that we would pass by Darnley Greenidge,then Castro then Slims.

  10. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    @ Gabriel who wrote ” A variation of the marble game was drawing circle (called a Ling)and placing buttons in the circle and whoever hits the button can claim ownership.Lots of shirts at school had no buttons as a result of this game.”

    We used marbles in Ling and the object of the game was to knock them out of the Ling and add them to your stash. I pitched in games where we each put 3 or 4 marbles in the Ling.

    Those were real ” boy days ” when there were no electronic distractions.

  11. Gabriel Avatar
    Gabriel

    Every boy showed tremendous skill at this pitching game.There were guys that would hit your marble from several feet away.There were 2 basic types of marbles.The plain clear ones which were larger and were had from the rum refinery.The colourful smaller ones called ‘glassies” were sold in stores in the city or at ‘drug stores’ anywhere.Boys of means would re-sell those glassies and boys of less means would wait until the glassies took some hits and started to ‘flake’ and would be sold at a reduced price.At primary school we pitched by resting the marble between the third finger and the thumb and flicking the thumb to propel or ‘pitch’ the marble.At secondary school another variation of the pitching game was called ‘coolie’. The marble was placed between the index and middle fingers of the left hand and the middle finger of the right hand would be used to propel the marble usually from a standing or kneeling position as opposed to crouching in the regular game.Some enterprising older boys had iron balls(bearings)for marbles.

  12. Lexicon Avatar
    Lexicon

    There were guys who would not only hit your marbles from several feet away, but would hit your marbles and split them into pieces…those were the guys with the precision and skills …

  13. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    BY REMINISCING ON PITCHING MARBLES WE ARE OF COURSE PITCHING IDEAS ON HOW TO FIX OUR WATER WOES, AREN’T WE? OR ARE WE JUST PITCHING “KILLER!”

    PERHAPS WE DONE DEAD ANYWAY
    WUH HAPPEN TO THE JACKASS CALLED BUSHTEA?
    HAS HE GONE TO FIND OUT THAT THERE IS REALLY A TRINITY?
    IS THIS BRASSBOWL’S ASS GRASS?

    IT IS WRITTEN ALL FLESH IS GRASS, YA KNOW

    BARE MOCK SPORT IN DE RUMSHOP!

  14. Lexicon Avatar
    Lexicon

    Gabriel

    We were the Barefoot Generation… but we were self-sufficient because we made our own kites, bats, box-carts chicken coop, scooters, tennis rackets, tape-balls, gutterperk etc

  15. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    As I recall, taw was the pitching marble; sometimes larger than a normal marble, and known as a Gooch. Since it was customary to place the pitching hand atop of the other to elevate the height at which the marble was pitched from. the ‘down taw’ meant you had to pitch with your pitching hand touching the ground.
    They were also steelies, which which the steel balls from a ball bearing. These were very effective in Ling, as removing them was a tough go (on dirt surfaces), while in turn they could remove glass (lighter) marbles easily. Larger truck bearings, produced the Gooch’s of the steelie world. Prized were the ‘chinas’ or solid coloured marbles with waves of a colour opposing the base colour. I guess the most common white with a blue streak looked like a china plate, hence the name?

  16. David Avatar
    David

    Let us hear more mature men.

    This is great!

  17. Gabriel Avatar
    Gabriel

    As Lexicon points out nothing went to waste.In the absence of the real mc coy the imagination and application of the youngsters knew no bounds.Lorries,buses,tractors,rollers,scooters,pond boats,bows and arrows,knit balls,tar balls,bats from palm branches,all made from scraps of wood,metal,cloth,twine and whatever nature provided.There was no homework at primary school.

  18. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    @ Lexicon,

    Did you mash trash, set fly sticks, roast breadfruits, shoot gutter perks, played Lilliputian cricket?

  19. Dame Bajans Avatar
    Dame Bajans

    Those white marbles were called ‘milkies’. You got one to a bag of mixed marbles and you would trade one for two ‘tiger eyes’. Not only boys pitched marbles or rolled rollers. Whenever you saw a waterworks truck repairing pipes was your turn to beg for the steel band at the end of the pipe to use as rollers. Then they were those who used the frame from bicycle wheels. At 72 years it is good to reminisce.

  20. Down Taw Nuh Brush! | Barbados Underground

    […] posted the following February 18, 2019 3:45 PM on the Barbados Water Authority Unable to QUICKLY Fix Leaks […]

  21. TheOGazerts Avatar
    TheOGazerts

    @Gabriel
    “At primary school we pitched by resting the marble between the third finger and the thumb and flicking the thumb to propel or ‘pitch’ the marble“

    This remind me of a strange pitching action I have seen done by just one person. I think Steinbok(bock, box) was his name and he was quite good.

    He would have the marble on his middle finger and use this finger as a slingshot. It’s remarkable that I have trouble with his name, but can remember how he pitched. I think MB or PLT would know him.

  22. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    Up taws to lines.

    That is what your opponent said to you when you pitched your marble and it landed and stayed in the ling.

    You then had to walk back to the line that marked the starting point.

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