Barbadians have been drilled from primary school that we are a water scarce country. There is a technical definition, a simple translation is the lack of available water resources to meet demand. In Barbados there are three reasons to explain the predicament we find ourselves- change in climatic conditions adversely affecting water catchment, a growing demand for potable water AND poor management of available water resources.
In 2016 or thereabouts a water shortage severely affected the North of the island and gave rise to a citizen group calling itself the Water Warriors- there was talk then as there is now- that solutions were/are in the pipeline. It is 2019 and if we listen to the cries of citizens about the lack running water, the problem appears to have gotten worse.
People pay taxes to ensure critical services like water, waste disposal, transportation and a few others are efficiently supplied by government. The fact that we continue to demonstrate the poorest management that forces citizens to embarrass themselves by making public cries is unacceptable. Can we honestly label ourselves an educated people if we continue to mismanage our affairs to this degree?
Here is a reminder of short and longer term solutions promised in 2016 by the then Minister of Water Resources David Estwick.
- The Barbados Water Authority has put in an order for eight additional water tankers to provide potable water for residents of St Joseph, St Andrew and St John.
- The tankers will take the BWA complement to 13, and they should be in Barbados in about two months.
- The BWA is presently rehabilitating a well at Groves in St George aimed at providing an additional 500 000 gallons of water to the Golden Ridge/Castle Grant system which supplies the northern parishes.
- The BWA has also completed a new pumping station at the Lazaretto, Black Rock, St Michael which allows it to push desalinated water down the island’s west coast into the St Peter system to get water to St Peter and St Lucy until the completion of the Northern Upgrade project which was started under a previous administration.
- The St Philip Water Augmentation project to find additional water to alleviate shortages in the south of Barbados will be commissioned next Wednesday, allowing the BWA access to an additional 3.5 million gallons of water per day, some of which will be pushed to St Joseph, via Bowmanston in St John – Nationnews
The Ionics desalination plant was also upgraded and contracted by government to augment the supply of water.
The majority of middleclass Barbadians have invested in water storage facilities, it is always the poor and vulnerable who are exposed by the chronic mismanagement by authorities.
The same lament can be repeated to explain the garbage pileup across the country. We hear the excuses and promises from Minister of the Environment Trevor Prescod that new garbage trucks will be deployed shortly. However sensible people are asking what is the backup plan. Is there a good case to contract private waste-haulers to assist with short term waste collection? Do not forget there is a systemic problem to be solved of implementing a waste management plan. Dumping garbage in a landfill is a primitive waste disposal solution and exposes successive governments for the inability to implement relevant solutions. The current flare up by sanitation workers is another symptom of mismanagement of our national affairs.
The quality of debate in this space and elsewhere means we can anticipate political operatives tossing the usual vacuous barbs to defend narrow political interest. This is where we are and where we will will continue to be as a nation- a country in decline if…
@TLSN
Plse re-read my post. It was nothing about cleanliness, but about the criminalisation of anti-social behaviour, straight out of the Tony Blair ASBO playbook. Ignore an ASBO and you face criminal charges.
I also made the point that since there appears to be already draft legislation, Hurricane Dorian was obviously not the trigger for this proposal, just an excuse.
@Hants
You people are not taking care of their surroundings by all means legislation it in a way that is reasonable.
@ David
What on earth go you mean by “ in the hood” ? You people cuss people who dwell overseas but at every given opportunity you mimic American crap. Guess you wear your pants down your backside as well.
Pure clowns.
You want to tell the blogmaster how to communicate?
You guys need to remove whatever is stuck you know where.
#steuspe
@Hal Austin August 28, 2019 2:11 PM “Mr Jong must be proud of bringing his Chinese ways to Barbados. People now live in fear.”
I am not living in fear.
Is there something peculiarly Chinese about keeping your yard and verge clean and tidy? I have a little place rented out and I write into the lease that the tenant is responsible for keeping the yard AND verge clean and tidy, or pay a bit extra and I will do it myself, or pay someone to do it. I HATE untidy yards.
My parents always cleaned the verge in front of our home. My brothers and sisters and I do it too. If i see a sweetie paper or a cigarette butt in front of my home I pick it up. Should we need to make a law? Perhaps not. Is the law going to be enforced? Very likely not. Perhaps an intense public education campaign might work better? I dunno.
A lot of Bajans are poor great poppets who don’t want to touch their own messes ever with gloves and masks on. Too many of us seem comfortable living in squalor.
I’ve been to London (dirty buses), Paris (smelly Metro), New York (dirty everything), Toronto, and many other cities. Gimme Toronto any day. Those Canadians know clean. Clean front yards, clean streets, clean bus shelters, clean buses and trains.
The Europeans can keep Europe. The Americans can keep America (shhh!!! Don’t tell the donald).
On this score the PM is correct. We must take responsibility for the cleanliness of our immediate surroundings. Having said that the government must take full responsibility for the proper collection and management of garbage.
I have heard stories where homeowners avoid painting properties to escape paying some kind of taxes. I still cannot understand that. Perhaps I got the stories wrong.
We have been dumping and littering the country and acting irresponsibly. We have allowed all types of shanty structures to exist because the politicians don’t want to inflame citizens. All over the place people are allowed to ignore Town and Country regulations. Everybody is guilty rich and poor.
It’s time to have some national pride
and stop turning a blind eye to these issues. We must protect our environment and infrastructure for ourselves and future generations.
This whole question of the proper handling of garbage goes back as far as Greenland and before. Pure political ignorance and we then have people on BU talking crap as if these problems started last week.
Let us keep de place clean and stop the bogus cool aid drinking nonsense.
The Duopoly Rules
@William Skinner August 28, 2019 8:56 PM “I have heard stories where homeowners avoid painting properties to escape paying some kind of taxes. I still cannot understand that. Perhaps I got the stories wrong.”
There is a Bajan myth the if a house is unfinished, unpainted, and with an overgrown dirty yard then the property tax officials who do the valuations will assess the house/building at being of lower value, and the homeowner will therefore pay less taxes.
@William Skinner August 28, 2019 8:56 PM “We have allowed all types of shanty structures to exist because the politicians don’t want to inflame citizens.”
Shanties=poverty.
It is the rare person who PREFERS to live in a shanty, instead of in a decent house.
We need land reform. Too many young families cannot afford to buy or even arrange a long term lease for a house spot, so a shanty is constructed in the parent’s back yard. No 20 something or 30 something man or woman wants to be pushed into the situation where they have to do their adult bedroom business with mum and or dad and young siblings in the adjoining room.
Young men and women need access to land so that they can start their own family life.
Young adults have sex, have children, need to move out from their parents homes, but so many cannot do that.
Land reform.
Land reform
Land reform.
@ Sir SmpleSimonPresidentForLife
I didn’t mean only houses. Drive around and you will see structures going up all over the place. I understand a person trying with a dwelling in the backyard or on a piece of family land but there are all types of structures made for all kinds of purposes.
Your comment about the need for reform cannot be seriously disputed.
Introducing legislation to make people keep their properties clean. Fair enough. But we also want to say fair enough, too, about seeing other pieces of legislation coming into play to deal with the shite that politicians are known to do. What about the legislation, effective and strong legislation, to keep the Treasury safe and clean. What about legislation that that require monies to be accounted down to the last cent making it very dificult for stinking politicians to present their schemes in asking for more money for this or that so call fixes.. What about legislation to strengthen the rules governing the Public Accounts Committee by placing it hands that are not political or show an inclination to be bipartisan what researching controversial issues.
What about the blasted legislation to free the hands of journalism to investigate freely all the money that politicians and their cohorts thief over the years. What about legislation that would allow the Auditor General to take his reports several steps further besides mere reporting. What about legislation or a constitutional change that would allow the people to have major say in projects that can shape their destinies or put a dent in it like the shite decisions that have ended in millions of dollars being wasted on politicians so call pipe dream projects. What about legislation that specifies a criteria for the selection of a knighhood. Strange is shite that the country’s highest honour (Knight or Dame of St. Andrew) have been bestowed mainly on politicians, and affiliates of the two stinking parties. What about legislation that introduces and solidifies the position of a Contractor General to have oversight and decisional review over any name project in Barbados. What about Freedom of Information Legislation and Anticorruption Laws. Funny how easy pieces of legislation can spring up for the mundane, but major issues of credibility and accountability, the legislation in drowned in a sea of shite talk and excuses.
Hal Austin August 28, 2019 2:11 PM “Mr Jong must be proud of bringing his Chinese ways to Barbados. People now live in fear.”
I am not living in fear.
Is there something peculiarly Chinese about keeping your yard and verge clean and tidy? I have a little place rented out and I write into the lease that the tenant is responsible for keeping the yard AND verge clean and tidy, or pay a bit extra and I will do it myself, or pay someone to do it. I HATE untidy yards.
My parents always cleaned the verge in front of our home. My brothers and sisters and I do it too. If i see a sweetie paper or a cigarette butt in front of my home I pick it up. Should we need to make a law? Perhaps not. Is the law going to be enforced? Very likely not. Perhaps an intense public education campaign might work better? I dunno.
A lot of Bajans are poor great poppets who don’t want to touch their own messes ever with gloves and masks on. Too many of us seem comfortable living in squalor.(Quote)
Plse re-read my post. It was nothing about cleanliness, but about the criminalisation of anti-social behaviour, straight out of the Tony Blair ASBO playbook. Ignore an ASBO and you face criminal charges.(Quote)
Another example of the Barbadian Condition.