The technical definition to describe Barbados being a scarce country is – “ its lack of fresh water resources, … water availability of just 306 cubic meters per capita per year, [which] makes [Barbados] the 15th most water‐scarce nation in the world”. (Forbes 2019).
Many Barbadians struggle to understand why Barbados is considered a water scarce country with rain water allowed to gush into the sea to name one concern. The blogmaster understands from the engineers it is uneconomic to trap runoff water generated from seasonal rains.
In recent days two news items related to water availability piqued the interest. Manager of Water Resources and Environmental Management Alex Ifill confirmed the Barbados Water Authority (BWA) does not have the capacity to support any increase in agri-food production. He also warned that climate change will soon adversely affect farmers currently engaged in rainfed farming.
The other point worth discussing was raised by Minister Ryan Straughn while participating at an IMF forum last week. In a nutshell the plan by government appears to treat and convert dirty water to potable. The offshore revelation has triggered negative public commentary from Barbadians who have historically been proud to promote good water quality.
… so let me see if I understand. The BWA makes money from selling a commodity called water. The more water it can produce the more it can sell. So if there is a demand for this item, why doesn’t this entity increase the supply of water to its clients? We have the desal option, we have damming which can either be done privately or by the BWA. What is the volume of water for instance that runs into the ocean every year from lack of capture? How much water does the pond at Lears hold? How much does the Farmers pond hold? Why cant we identify the flow paths and dam those outflows to the sea, then treat the water from them and introduce that water into the local supply?
This response by the BWA is typical of why we are where we are. Its always the glass is half empty response here isn’t it?
John A
Public concerns about government going in the direction of treated water is understandable against a background of deep mistrust in government. Let us agree successive governments have not executed simple projects well. The science of tertiary treatment process to convert ‘sewage water’ to potable although tested will never be trusted by locals. That Minister Straughn would blunder into asserting government’s plan in an offshore forum BEFORE having a national discussion is unsurprising. A good question to ask Minister Straughn and government is – what does it take to nurture public trust?
Barbadians (The Collective) are not entirely blameless. We wash our cars, power wash our homes, use potable water to flush toilets, refuse to get serious about replacing leaking mains, sell water to cruise ships to list a few ways water is mismanaged. However what is known, there is bountiful supply of sewerage water.
What is the plan, anyone?
If every well in Barbados was cleared of rubbish we would have more water than was needed. The owners of Edgecumbe plantation have done that and the entire island needs to do it!
Bentley reminded he posted the following article on BU in 2014 with the following comment:
You will recall my article in 2014 titled Agriculture and feeding our people. This spoke to several ways to improve food production from agriculture. Also, the article raises the matter of constructing dams to store water for agriculture.
I recall back in 1977 writing a paper that was incorporated into the final report of the Barbados Water Resources Study (1978). The paper was titled Scotland District Surface Impoundments. I was a young engineer at the time, in fact the youngest member of the project team. Nicky Sealy, then general manager of the BWA was project manager. So you can see that the BWA has been looking at this matter for almost 50 years but we haven’t been able to put a comprehensive plan in place.
Also during that study I put together a data base consisting of 140 years of rainfall data for the entire island. This data may now be available in electronic format that could be updated on a yearly basis.
My point is that we have all the information we need to develop a comprehensive water harvesting, storage and irrigation plan for agriculture. You can blame the tardiness and lack of action on the lack of will and not lack of water.
Bentley Norville
Environmental Engineer and Registered Professional Engineer
In recent days two news items related to water availability piqued the interest. Manager of Water Resources and Environmental Management Alex Ifill confirmed the Barbados Water Authority (BWA) does not have the capacity to support any increase in agri-food production. He also warned that climate change will soon adversely affect farmers currently engaged in rainfed farming.
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Well duuuuuh!!
That’s why sugar cane has been used for the past 300-400 years as a cover crop with the added bonus of sugar.
…. and intercropping!!
Today is another example of a country flooded with water and 90% will probably not penetrate to the aquifer.
Can we support increase agriculture/food production or not.
—————-
Senator: Strong technology push needed for agricultural sector – Barbados Today
https://barbadostoday.bb/2023/10/21/strong-investment-needed-in-technology-to-help-grow-agriculture-sector/
Water needs to be “stored” underground.
Ponds evaporate.
The “vast” underground reservoirs with which we are blessed occur in the sheet water area.
The last available water source in the Scotland District needs to be moved to these underground reservoirs.
This is pretty small.
So we are left with recycling used water and getting it back to the underground reservoirs from where it can be extracted for use.
Many of the residential conversions need to be sewered, the Warrens area for a start.
And we need to stop and if possible reverse the change of use of land to residential/commercial.
Construction is our enemy.
Today is another example of a country flooded with water and 90% will probably not penetrate to the aquifer.
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No point in blowing a valve…
tek it easy Skippa… You sounding like Bushie did …before de whacker get tek way…. as if there was hope for wisdom to push through the fog of brassbowlery…
The sooner you come to grips with the FACT that the iceberg has ALREADY bust open the belly of RBBS Titanic (Republic of Brassbados Banana Ship), and that our trajectory will become vertical shortly, the sooner you will settle down and enjoy the ride … like Bushie.
Umm was Owen that took us full speed through the iceberg field called ‘Caricom’ will little regard… and since then, all the captains like they get bewitched by the shiite ‘monument’ that Froon put in the middle of the Garrison…
You can IMAGINE, that a coral stone, 2X3 island, in the middle of nowhere, finds itself designed with idillic underground water storage, surrounded with heavenly beaches, and blessed with flat, rolling hills and vales that are the envy of the world…
AND WHAT DID WE DO…?!!
1 – We sold all the best ocean views to selfish, albino-centric, sick-minded people who wanted the views ‘for THEMSELVES’….
….so now you can drive around the whole shiite place and barely catch 6 quick views of ‘heaven’.
The race is on now, to see who can get their ’22 pieces of silver’ for selling off Carlisle Bay to complete the total idiocy.
2 – A perfect, GOD-GIVEN, potable water system was too good for us brass bowls, so we decided to convert much of the agricultural land into concrete and to instead inject raw sewage into the ‘flush toilet’ wells associated with development, while forcing the natural rainfall to run-off towards the sea….
…surprise surprise, as we use more water and restrict natural absorption, ‘officials’ now complain of ‘falling water tables’…
BUT THERE IS MORE…
3 -In order to ‘free up’ even more land for ‘development’ (ie quick bucks for those in the right place at the right time), more and more land is now being ‘zoned’ for concrete….now with Zones A B C…instead of 1,2,3… so that brass bowls don’t see what is happening..
But…
4 – This is the BEST brassbowlery yet…
The JAs spent hundreds of millions of dollars and FAILED to get a MOST BASIC LEVEL sewerage system to work….
Not only did it fail, but the result has been, that since its failure, we have been pumping the raw sewage directly into that ‘heavenly offshore paradise’ with which we were blessed….
Now for the BB ’solution’….
-We will BORROW hundreds of millions of dollars… (but no worry, Mia has a trick so we won’t notice it..)
-We will then get the VERY SAME JAs who FAILED at the BASIC level plant, to now build a TERTIARY LEVEL (MUCHHH more complex) plant, …but this time we fully HOPE that things will go well, …so that the output will be going, INSTEAD OF TO THE SEA, into the underground aquifers…
..brassbowlery at it utmost brilliance….
Talk bout this place SWEET…..
Steupsss
Job Number 1….. FIX BACK de Garrison…..dig up de demon…
climate change is the biggest lie that the UN and the WEF has been foisting on the sheeple for the last I don’t know how many years. How long is is that they have been threatening that the sea levels will rise and the beach front properties will be worthless? Come on people. Open your eyes and think critically. These wicked people are filling wunnas ears and eyes up with a bundle of nonsense and mekkin ya pay for it too.
@ David
I aint no waterologist or whatever the name is, but this is my suggestion to those that say we cant supply water for agriculture and hence must buy imported food.
We identify 12 major drain off points in the island starting from the highest points in the island. We then create a tier system of dams from the higher to lower elevations. So each tier may have 3 massive dams till we reach the coast. We then connect the lower tear to a treatment plant and after treatment inject that into the mains
As water runs down hill we can easily pump from the higher tier to the lower tier when the coastal tier gets empty, therby leaving the higher dams to fill again.
Only when the 3 massive dams are full will water then reach the sea.
John A the reply to your suggestion will probably go something like this- there will be a significant cost to implement which the customer would have to bear. Also significant outlay of capital required by government.
So basically 12 flows from high to low elevations with 3 dams per flow giving 36 dams island wide with 12 smaller treatment stations.
David
on October 21, 2023 at 4:19 PM said:
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Today is another example of a country flooded with water and 90% will probably not penetrate to the aquifer.
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The 1946 Senn Report estimates that over a year, 80% will evaporate of be transpired by the vegetation!!
10 % will run off
and the other 10% will percolate into the ground.
Everything I have read uses these estimates.
Observe what happens to the land when rain falls in the first 6 months of the year.
Within a few hours the ground is dry and very little greening of the grass is seen.
So, we can say that there is little infiltration for 50% of the year. Evapotranspiration takes care of close to 100%.
The only place that you will or may see green depending on how much rain falls is the higher elevations along the escarpment separating the Scotland District from the coral capped area.
The springs up there on the Scotland District side run year round except in exceptionally dry years. I have seen Joe’s River valley completely dry ditto the Greenland River and Springvale valley.
The gullies remain green because the heavy vegetation prevents evaporation.
So, what happens in the wet season, the other 6 months?
Again, watch the land.
It greens up and stays green because the vegetation gets its fill of water some of which it transpires and is lost. the rest is used in the photosynthesis process.
The cover provided by the vegetation reduces the evaporation of water from the land, a huge plus.
In this period cane is just about the most ideal cover crop you can have at the stage of its growth it has reached.
The surplus infiltrates the soil or, in the case of heavy downpours runs off the land and is lost.
The number of days we see in a year when there is significant run off can probably be counted on the fingers of your hand.
There is nothing we can do to stop this.
The volume is too high to store, the coral cap too porous to even think of damming gullies whose sides and bottoms are porous and using the Scotland District to store it will be a waste because impoundments will be washed out or silt up.
We need as much of our land covered by cane as possible.
JohnA
The island is divided into water units as you envisage.
Check the 1978 water resources report.
Except for some, all in the coral area have been tapped by the WWD, now BWA.
For example, in St. Peter there is the Hayman’s Catchment which runs from the escarpment to the sea. The water is tapped at the Whim Pumping Station on the ridge by St. Peter’s Rectory.
The Ashton Hall catchment is tapped on the ridge up a gap opposite St. Joseph’s Hospital, maybe a little lower.
There is the Alleynedale catchment which is tapped to the west of Alleynedale Plantation.
St. James has the Carlton catchment, Porter’s catchment, sacrificed for Westmoreland and Apes Hill, Trents catchment which I think has been abandoned because of Apes Hill, Molyneux and Norwoods sacrificed for Sandy Lane.
https://barbadosfreepress.wordpress.com/2007/01/03/winner-announced-barbados-piggies-at-the-trough-award-2006/
Belle and Hampton tap the two largest catchments.
Applewhaites pumping station close to Exchange taps the Applewhaite’s Basin.
Sweet Vale and Bowmanston are in St. John
Codrington Spring and Benn Spring tap another catchment.
The Scotland District is largely unused.
David
on October 21, 2023 at 10:07 PM said:
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John A the reply to your suggestion will probably go something like this- there will be a significant cost to implement which the customer would have to bear. Also significant outlay of capital required by government.
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The answer is that the waterflow to tap is underground. Not much worth doing on the surface except to care the zones and prevent contamination.
Here are the Catchment Areas
https://imgur.com/jgse1qZ
Here are the volumes that can be extracted from each per day.
https://imgur.com/xpkFUkh
Source: Nation
Source: Business Barbados
@ John
I live near and pass the Farmers Pond daily and it may lose a small amount due to eveporarion as a swimming pool does, however that pond irrigiates the Apes Hill Golf Course and i have never seen it near empty. The water from that pond is then pumped to the golf course and other smaller ponds on it. The Polo field there is also maintained by another pond on the field that keeps that green as well. That pond uses the field as its catchment area and the water is then directed by drains into the pond.
The amout of water yesterday that made its way to the ocean was unreal. We need some of that to help feed us and all the excuses why this cant happen need to cease.
In the dry months you will lose some to evaporation i agree, but not the large amount you are saying. For example a swimming pool 6 ft deep will lose rougly 2 inches in a month in the heat of summer without rain or topping up. Yes we may draw from the acquifers, but way too muh water is lost to the ocean due to surface run off. This water does not have a chance to filtrate to the acquirers. We therefore need to concentrate on both surface and acquifer water.
Water options for coastal residents?
Ground water is being drawn out (by quantity and also by the depth of drawl) along the shore.
You can get fresh drinking water even at about 200m from the shore at a depth of 1–2 meters but the yield would be very low.
Usually the surface and subsurface (6–8 meters) water flows into the sea. If a proper study is made about the flow pattern shallow wells can be made along the shore (within 2km) that could yield a fair amount of drinking water for communities. However, this might not be possible in area where large quantities of ground water is pumped (Spring Garden) out for various uses. Such method has been adopted in some coastal area in India successfully.
John A
Of course you never see it empty.
Mount Hillaby (Hellaby) is the highest point on the island and as we all know the rain falls in that area wet season or dry season.
It is always green!!
The catchment area that feeds the pond according to Google Earth is about 10 times the size of the pond so for every inch of rain that falls, the pond level could rise 10 inches depending on how much is used by the vegetation!!
For every 0.2 of an inch (20 parts) the pond level could rise 2 inches.
The area of the pond on Google Earth is about 13 acres.
One acre foot is 325,851 gallons or 1,233.48 cu.m.
Where do you think that water went before it was diverted to Apes Hill?
Under the bridge and into Dunscombe Gully.
The Gully is porous so most of it goes underground.
When I started hiking in 1988, there was surface water flow every time I crossed it or walked it.
I have seen dry years when there was none.
If you follow the gully down it joins the one from Porey Spring and ends up at the Hole in Holetown.
The reason you will rarely see the Hole dry is because it is fed by constant rainfall from the higher elevations.
The level of the water in the Hole is sea level.
It is brackish and clearly non potable .
However, the fresh water lens in the sheet water area extends eastward up to and just past the first high cliff, north and south of Trents.
The coral cap ensures the BWA pumping station at Trents, does get potable water which it can chlorinate.
My information is that the Trent’s Pumping Station is no longer in use because of salt water intrusion.
Why would that happen?
Because of the pond at Farmers.
The fresh water flow down to the sea has been dammed so the fresh water lens cannot be maintained for pumping purposes.
If the Government were really serious about food, it would remove the dam and restore the fresh water lens under Trents.
It would then classify what’s left of the agricultural land in the Trent’s catchment as only for agriculture and supply it with water from Trents.
With the amount of development that has taken place in that area the water from the Trents pumping station is no longer fit for consumption unless it is treated.
Alternatively, in case it wasn’t serious about food, it would still remove the dam and treat the fresh water for human consumption and ease the water woes it has created by flawed land use planning.
Tony on October 22, 2023 at 2:23 PM said:
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Water options for coastal residents?
Ground water is being drawn out (by quantity and also by the depth of drawl) along the shore.
You can get fresh drinking water even at about 200m from the shore at a depth of 1–2 meters but the yield would be very low.
Usually the surface and subsurface (6–8 meters) water flows into the sea. If a proper study is made about the flow pattern shallow wells can be made along the shore (within 2km) that could yield a fair amount of drinking water for communities. However, this might not be possible in area where large quantities of ground water is pumped (Spring Garden) out for various uses. Such method has been adopted in some coastal area in India successfully.
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The Hole is an example water at the shore, obviously that is not potable.
In 1946, many folks in Holetown and its environs had wells.
All of them are in the midst of housing developments and have no zoning. They were abandoned once Trents and other supply wells supplied water needs direct to houses.
Here are the names between Holetown and Porter’s gap.
Small, E.
Rowe, Ambrose
Searles, Elise
Trotman, Blanche
Rouse, M.
Seale, L.
Walcott, Fitz
William, Reynolds
Butcher, Edward
Taitt, James ..
Haynes, Errol
Haynes, Milton
Ford, EthE!1 ..
Smith, Aubrey
Prescod, Etheline
Williams, Josephine
Francis, Samuel
Taitt, Joseph
Alleyne, Elsie
Seale, L.
Lascelles No. 2
Hutson. H. L.
Jones, Kathleen
Blanchette, Alfred
Lascelles No.1 (yard)
The deepest well was in Lascelles Yard at 49.5 feet, the shallowest was 5 feet deep at M. Rouse. The majority were less than 10 feet deep.
All up and down the coast there were such wells, all long abandoned.
Treating issues one has a time will have us finding solutions that magnify the issues we are trying to solve.
Let me hook a few together
Not enough water to grow food
Diasporans should not vote
Add 80,000 new immigrants who will drink water and want to vote
80,000 more covid vaccines (we get a few Immig Baloney)
some of the 80,000 blocking access to the beach
That’s a potent brew of trouble. How come the smartest men in the world cannot see past their guts.
How come the smartest men in the world cannot see past their guts.
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…THE fundamental Achilles heel of our world…..
ie… A materialistic greed that seeks to ‘own the whole world’… before dying off like a common fly, and leaving it all behind….
meanwhile, the SPIRITUAL opportunity of immeasurable value goes to complete waste…
To Bushie, ‘Brass bowlery’ is a kind description of this condition…
The way a decent bushman put it, was…
“What does it profit a man to gain the whole world… and to lose his own soul..?”
Benn listening to Brasstacks on VOB. Topic is ” water “.
Should I visit Barbados will be buying bottled water for drinking.
Hants on October 23, 2023 at 12:50 PM said:
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Should I visit Barbados will be buying bottled water for drinking.
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… or you could drink beer!!
That is why alcoholic beverages such as ale, wine, rum etc were in use for so long.
Alcohol is a poison and small amounts kill the bacteria.
That’s why people in the past drank so much, not necessarily to get drunk, but because it was known doing so would keep you alive!!
The genius historians play up the ale houses and taverns in Bridgetown and Oistins to show how degenerate the early folks were without looking for another explanation.
Me, I get a chuckle at their expense.
Barbadians were informed today that the treated waste water will be injected in predetermined aquifers. It is not sewage water to table that is being promoted on social media. It makes on wonder why Minister Straughn would have yapped about it in a public international forum before the initiative was explained properly to residents.
#simulatedincompetence
Source: Nation
David
on October 24, 2023 at 7:18 PM said:
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Meanwhile, Farrell warned that there were items entering the water system, including pharmaceuticals discharges, that are not treated.
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So why on earth would the new $100 million Geriatric Hospital be constructed on rezoned land in Waterford Bottom, a stone’s throw from Belle?
Waterford Bottom is the site of collapsed underground caves.
https://barbados.loopnews.com/content/construction-new-geriatric-hospital-waterford-begins
“SOUTH COAST ‘FIX’
STRAUGHN ‘SEEKING SOLUTION’ TO SEWAGE SYSTEM STRUGGLES
Minister in the Ministry of Finance Ryan Straughn has told lawmakers that the government is in the process of finding a permanent fix to the south coast sewage system, while ensuring that the Graeme Hall wetland is restored and protected.
As he introduced the Debt (Natural Disaster and Pandemic Deferment of Payment) (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill in the House of Assembly, he also responded to public concerns that the government was seeking to recycle wastewater by treating it and returning it to the aquifers.
Straughn said he was calling on the Barbados Water Authority (BWA) to “go into overdrive” in informing the public of how water is currently being recycled on the island.
He said he wanted the BWA to explain to residents “exactly what happens when you flush your toilet or you take a shower, when you wash your hands at the sink, where that water goes and then how it is treated when it comes back into your same pipe for you to do what you have to do”.
Recalling that the Government was able to put a stop to the South Coast sewage crisis of 2017/2018, Struaghn said: “We have been searching for five years for a permanent solution to the south coast sewage plant.
“You would appreciate that between there you had COVID and a whole set of things that caused us not to be able to find the right type of financing to be able to deal with it. We have created a temporary solution but we recognise that we need a permanent solution.”
BWA officials indicated on Monday that they were in the process of developing a water and sanitation master plan that would include the recycling of waste water.
Straughn said the practice of treating wastewater and returning it to the system was nothing new, as he explained that the water from most households and businesses was currently filtered into the aquifers and then treated by the BWA.
“When we flush our toilets, we wash our hands [and] we take a bath, everything goes into the well. It percolates and finds its way through the limestone into the aquifers. That happens in every single house in Barbados today, unless you are hooked up to some fancy sewage system,” he said.
“So when people are walking ‘bout saying the government wants to put ‘sugar honey ice-tea’ into the aquifers, it is sad because it means you don’t even understand how ordinary people in this country [are] living when the day comes.”
Saying that the concern being raised was an attempt to discredit the BWA and the work it has been doing over the years, Straughn gave the assurance that the water being extracted from the aquifers was being carefully treated before it goes back through the taps in households and businesses.
Noting that Barbados was severely water scarce and that “every day we are discharging three, four or five million gallons of water out to sea” while having to endure water restriction, Straughn said “people need to understand that if you do not manage and make decisions for the long-term sustainable development of this country then we will be doing our people a disservice”.
He added that in addition to recovering the approximately four million gallons of water to replenish the aquifers, some of it will be used for agriculture purposes.
“If you want food and nutrition security in the country, farmers need access to water and that is something we have committed to doing and we will execute,” he said.
Straughn gave the assurance that in addition to the upgrade of the South Coast Sewage Treatment Plant, efforts were also being made to restore the nearby Graeme Hall wetland, which has become a source of concern for environmentalists and residents in the area in recent times.
He said: “You would recall that the issues of the discharge of the sewage in the Graeme Hall swamp that caused issues related to biodiversity and the way the swamp was being managed,”
Straughn told the House.”The swamp is not necessarily fully back to where it was prior to when the last government allowed the sewage to go in there indiscriminately.
“We are making every effort to restore, not just the mangrove but the biodiversity of everything that is there in a reasonable and sustainable way with respect to how we manage those very fragile resources and ecosystems that are there.”
Making it clear that the sewage plant to be built on the south coast would be a tertiary treatment facility, Straughn said this would put an end to sewage being pumped out to sea and as a result, the island’s marine area “would be enhanced over time”.
“This is going to solve multiple problems,” he told fellow parliamentarians. “Part of what we are contemplating now is a debt for climate swap, which will see us facilitate the construction of the upgrade of that plant without the government having to spend an extra cent.” (MM)”
Brasstacts heated right now. Caswell and Walter debating water.
https://www.toronto.ca/services-payments/water-environment/tap-water-in-toronto/#:~:text=Water%20is%20collected%20from%20Lake,screens%20to%20remove%20large%20debris.
Hants
You realise of course that Lake Ontario is FOS!!
The treated water you consume will be full of pharmaceuticals.
https://www.freedrinkingwater.com/water-news/remove-pharmaceuticals-from-water-not-cheap.htm
Removing pharmaceuticals from water doesn’t come cheap or easy
FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif. — Shivaji Deshmukh drinks water extracted from raw sewage. He knows the water is clean because his job is to help make it so as an engineer at the Orange County Water District.
“It’s an efficient, cheap water supply — and it’s the best quality,” says Deshmukh, amid the hiss of machines at the state-of-the-art facility.
Performing the recycling transformation requires a battery of treatments.
Wastewater strained and disinfected at an adjacent sewage treatment plant is first filtered through tiny straws. Then, in a process called reverse osmosis, the water is forced across a spiraled sheet of plastic with holes so small that little else can slip through. In the final phase, the water is zapped with ultraviolet light.
The three-step operation is one of the most sophisticated cleansing systems anywhere. While the incoming water contains minuscule levels of prescription drugs, tests for any traces of a half-dozen pharmaceuticals, conducted as the treated water leaves the plant, detect nothing.
The end product supplies more than 500,000 Orange County residents for a year, nearly one-quarter of the district’s potable water.
The cleansing procedure illustrates how difficult — and expensive — it is to scrub virtually every iota of contaminant from our supplies.
The standard ways of cleaning water are not designed to snare the tiny amounts of prescription drugs that survive digestion, and then, with a flush of the toilet, begin their journey toward America’s taps.
It’s not an academic exercise: According to an Associated Press investigation, scientists have found that water piped to tens of millions of people nationwide contains minute concentrations of dozens of pharmaceuticals from tranquilizers to painkillers to antibiotics.
While scientists have not definitively established that people are harmed by these drugs, laboratory tests have shown tiny amounts can have ill effects on human cells. And the fact that they are being consumed in combination, over many years — at any level — worries some researchers.
If those fears are borne out by future studies, it could lead communities and water providers to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on more advanced treatments to improve on the commonplace regimen of filtration and disinfection with chlorine.
A large-scale reverse osmosis system is expensive. It costs Orange County about one-eighth of a penny per gallon — or $15 month for the 12,000 gallons used by a typical family of four, a price that doesn’t include overhead charges, such as construction, salaries, and maintenance.
Officials at the Greater Cincinnati Water Works say their granular activated carbon filtering system costs 93.6 cents per month for the typical family of four.
Following a parasitic outbreak, the Southern Nevada Water Authority in Las Vegas — which processes up to 900 million gallons daily at two treatment plants — invested millions of dollars in a different advanced system that dissolves ozone gas into water to destroy micro-organisms.
The cheaper ozonation process isn’t designed to remove pharmaceuticals, though it does take care of many compounds.
Tests at the Nevada authority have shown that tiny concentrations of the tranquilizer meprobamate and an anti-epileptic drug regularly resist the treatment, as on occasion has carbamazepine, another anti-convulsant.
At the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which serves 18.5 million people, tests at one of its five plants show that ozonation failed to remove a tranquilizer and an anti-epileptic drug from the finished drinking water, according to an ongoing study.
That district and the Southern Nevada Water Authority both draw from the Colorado River, which, tests show, can contain several hundred parts per trillion of pharmaceuticals, including the active ingredients in medicines to treat depression and anxiety.
The drugs get there because wastewater plants that drain into the river use basic treatments designed to remove microbes and industrial contaminants, not pharmaceuticals — the same scenario in many rivers nationwide.
Even in Europe, where governments have gone much further in addressing trace levels of pharmaceuticals in the environment, there’s the scant political will to invest broadly in advanced wastewater treatment.
“The cost isn’t acceptable right now,” Yves Levi, a pharmacist, and professor of public health at Paris-South 11 University, said in an interview in French. “No one knows if the risk is considerable or not.”
Another advanced process at drinking water treatment plants, the use of carbon filters, also lets some pharmaceuticals through.
Some of the most detailed testings was done at the Passaic Valley Water Commission in Northern New Jersey, where a drinking water treatment facility downstream from numerous sewage treatment plants chemically removes sediments from water, then disinfects it with chlorine, and runs it through the extra filtering step.
Although the treatment decreased pharmaceutical concentrations, some samples heading into drinking water pipes contained all or some of the following: the painkiller codeine, an anticonvulsant drug, the remnants of a drug to reduce chest pains and caffeine.
Lead researcher U.S. Geological Survey hydrologist Paul Stackelberg said he expected tests at the same type of treatment plant anywhere in the nation would produce similar results.
“It’s very easy to use all of the products that we use in our daily lives and not think twice about it,” Stackelberg said.
Stackelberg also raised an X-factor: Rather than obliterating some pharmaceuticals, chlorination could chemically transform them into compounds that are even more toxic.
In one lab study, scientists found that acetaminophen, after undergoing chlorination, reacted to form tiny amounts of two known toxic compounds — 1,4-benzoquinone and N-acetyl-p-benzoquinone imine, the latter being associated with acetaminophen overdoses.
Source: The Associated Press. Daily News-Miner. March 18, 2008.
So you see how easy it is for COVID to get into the drinking water and why it is that it is an urban affliction.
Hants on October 25, 2023 at 1:16 PM said:
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Brasstacts heated right now. Caswell and Walter debating water.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
My bet is that neither one has a clue!!
BTW, who is Walter?
https://barbadostoday.bb/2023/10/25/straughn-seeking-solution-to-sewage-system-struggles/
I take no delight in pointing out the failings of my countrymen. I do so, only to temper the enthusiasm and suppress the spread of misinformation by the J2s, Lorenzo’s and the enuffs of Barbados as they attempt to place ongoing items in the win columns.
Those who are directly in charge and working on the solution always give a report that contradicts the “win and done” of that BLP trio.
from TS to cat 5 in about 24 hours.
Water Zone
https://www.nationnews.com/2023/10/26/letters-replace-numbered-zones/
The aim is to free up more land for development!!!
That’s how these geniuses get to build a hospital so close to Bellae.
https://www.facebook.com/bwa.bb/videos/the-new-proposed-zoning-changes-in-barbados-pt2/766051357372690/
https://youtu.be/1qZORdDEc3Q
Concerns are being raised about the wholesomeness of injecting treated waste water into the aquifer. Should there be concern about the ability and capacity to safely undertake the task? What about the cost benefit of going the suggested route compared to desalination? There is managing the understandable concerns of the public by implementing a comprehensive educational outreach plan.
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/14/20/3257
fuh true ? fuh real ?
https://www.totallybarbados.com/articles/infrastructure/water/
sweet tallk.
David
on October 27, 2023 at 6:57 AM said:
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Concerns are being raised about the wholesomeness of injecting treated waste water into the aquifer. Should there be concern about the ability and capacity to safely undertake the task? What about the cost benefit of going the suggested route compared to desalination? There is managing the understandable concerns of the public by implementing a comprehensive educational outreach plan.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Start here
This is the type of water that would come out of Lake Ontario for Hants to drink!!
Barbados used to boast about having some of the purest water in the world.
Lake Ontario is one giant cesspool!!
Yet from it comes all of the drinking water Hants consumes, assuming he drinks from the tap and does not buy bottled water.
Every day assuming he does so every day, he bathes in it, he washes his face in it, he cleans his teeth with it and he waters his garden with it.
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/hamilton-uncovers-second-leak-dumping-raw-sewage-into-lake-ontario-for-decades
https://eos.org/articles/great-lakes-cities-sewer-designs-mean-waste-in-the-waters
The reason Hants can do so is because it is treated to WHO standards or whatever standards are applicable where he lives.
Likewise Hal Austin in London.
He gets his water supplied to his house from rivers which are polluted with sewage.
The only reason Hal doesn’t get sick is because like the waters of Lake Ontario, his water is treated.
Similarly, Grasshopper depending on where he lives.
….. and GP too.
Here’s the problem.
Water treatment does not remove all impurities.
We have never until the 1990’s had to depend on any water treatment because all of the supply wells had control zones around them which meant that the travel time to them exceeded the life expectancy of bacteriological contaminants.
However, regardless of the travel times inorganic contaminants won’t be removed.
We get traces of agricultural chemicals, household chemicals, pharmaceuticals and whatever other chemicals are used on the surface.
Tap water in Toronto.
” Before water is pumped for distribution to homes and businesses, the following is added:
chlorine to destroy bacteria and viruses
fluoride to help prevent tooth decay
ammonia to ensure chlorine levels remain present as water travels through the distribution system
phosphoric acid, which is used for corrosion control to help create a barrier between residential lead pipes and drinking water”
I have been drinking bottled water for the last 20 years and have a fridge with a filter for making ice .
When I was growing up in Barbados I used to drink water from the stand pipe and later from the pipe in the kitchen in our chattel house.
I am 71 years old so any germs I have absorbed since I was about 16 yars old may have been destroyed by Banks and Jonnie Walker. lol
three score years and ten. into bonus time.
When the ladies of Ontario on the pill have to pee, much of it ends up in Lake Ontario.
https://www.sciencefocus.com/the-human-body/what-happens-if-a-man-takes-contraceptive-pill
What happens if a man takes the pill?
“Good news: nothing will happen if he only took one. There’s a one in four chance that the pill was a dummy anyway, as most packets include seven tablets with no drugs in them (meant to maintain the habit of taking the pill while the ‘withdrawal bleed’ happens).
If he regularly took the ‘combined pill’, which contains oestrogen and progestogen hormones, it would have mild feminising effects, such as wider hips, softer skin and slight breast development.
The oestrogen dose is about a tenth of that taken by transgender women, but it’s a form of oestrogen associated with higher risks of deep vein thrombosis, so it wouldn’t be a good idea for anyone wanting to transition. Regularly taking a progestogen-only pill would have the main impact of reducing his sperm count and libido.”
“If a man took just one or two birth control pills, nothing would happen. There is not enough of either hormone to throw a man’s body out of balance with just a couple of pills. However, if a man took birth control pills regularly over an extended period, his breasts might grow slightly larger, his testicles might shrink a little, and his sex drive and amount of facial hair might decrease. He also might develop softer skin and wider hips [source: Guite]. Higher levels of estrogen also increase the risk of infertility, because an imbalance of the hormone affects production of quality sperm. Exhaustion, reduced muscle mass, osteoporosis, trouble focusing and even hot flashes are other known side effects of too much estrogen in a man [source: Healthline].”
https://www.businessinsider.com/birth-control-pills-hormones-estrogen-drinking-water-health-effects-2019-10
I posted the following on the other water topic yesterday in response to john A.
John2
on October 26, 2023 at 12:27 PM said:
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Barbados is a socialist country ( both parties ).
Comparing BWA to coke is apple and oranges (Socialism vs capitalism).
Now compare what would happen to our health system if we privatize the hospital and polyclinics(How many poor people would wait until the last minute to seek care) to the system here in USA where some hospital close when they don’t make enuff money because they had to treat people without insurance/ can’t afford to pay ( usually immigrants)
Or compare the two tertiary educational systems
Who will suffer the most under ur capitalist system that averything should be run like a business/ to make profit?
=====.
If you understand the concept and operation of the pond that you and John talk about under another topic then that is the way to provide the cheapest water to farmers. The MOA did some damming for some farmers in st Phillip is another example
Claybury and Redland plantations were doing it from the 80/90s
As farmers will mostly need extra water during the dry seasons then ur water treatment plants would be out of operation for about half the year
========
Now if u want to put back the run off water into the system then the best and cheapest way would be instead of damming and building treatment plants – let the run into the hole and percolate to the aquifers. Your three dams would be operating like the modern concept of the well and be large enuff to be mechanically cleaned
——-
BY DEFINITION bim is a water scare country
IMO for right now we have enuff water around to fill our needs but we need more reservoirs in the higher elevations .
Note how the one put in on the road from branchbury to Chimborazo ( castle grant) in st Joseph has greatly improved the lack of water conditions in the surrounding areas
If you understand the concept and operation of the pond that you and John talk about under another topic then that is the way to provide the cheapest water to farmers. The MOA did some damming for some farmers in st Phillip is another example
Claybury and Redland plantations were doing it from the 80/90s
As farmers will mostly need extra water during the dry seasons then ur water treatment plants would be out of operation for about half the year
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
In the St. John Valley where Claybury and Redland are located has plenty of rain so lower evapotranspiration, like Farmers. There will be less rain because lower elevation.
A few years ago, early 2018 if memory serves me right, the ponds were dry because there was little rain. I think the main one sprung a leak. They are after all situated in depressions which are there because they are on top of collapsed caves. Karst.
Take a look at the St. John Valley and you will see it is pock marked with depressions do extremely porous. There is of course Gutter Road opposite Andrews which leads to the lower parts of the St. John Valley so you could expect it to act as a gutter for water from the higher elevations of the valley in the Andrews area.
BWA has a pumping station at Sweet Vale so it is unlikely anyone is going to be able to get permissions to pump in the St. John Valley, so ponds are the only option. The St. John Valley also feeds the Applewhaites Basin where BWA has a well.
For most of the year, the St. John Valley will be verdant, unlike St. Lucy.
You definitely do not want to store water in a pond in St. Philip, pure folly.
… or Christ Church or St. Lucy.
You may ask how come the Graeme Hall Swamp always has in water?
The answer is that it is because the bottom is below sea level so what you see is the fresh water lens floating on sea water but at sea level.
There is a well at Graeme Hall on the ridge, far enough from the Swamp to ensure its salinity is lower and water suitable for irrigation.
BY DEFINITION bim is a water scare country
IMO for right now we have enuff water around to fill our needs but we need more reservoirs in the higher elevations .
Note how the one put in on the road from branchbury to Chimborazo ( castle grant) in st Joseph has greatly improved the lack of water conditions in the surrounding areas
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=0be4sIUzUZc
Here’s the problem.
The only way to keep the reservoir with water is to divert it from other areas.
The demand for water in Barbados is larger than the supply and has been since the mid 1990’s.
If El Nino runs true to form next year and serious drought returns in the dry season there will be shortages in areas supplied by Belle and Hampton as water is diverted to St. Joseph.
The infrastructure is now there to make diversion of large volumes easier so St. Joseph should be better off …. but somebody some where will go without water.
And it will get worse as more and more development is allowed.
I live in an area that has until recently experienced few if any extended water outages.
A burst pipe now and again but no outages for a day or two.
It could be there were problems which needed to be fixed but my bet is water is being shuttled around.
Now, I don’t have a problem with this, everyone should have water.
But accept the limit placed on construction of new houses and stop it.
How you will know for sure is that you will see the KWh used by BWA increase.
There is where solar power could be used to reduce energy costs.
However, the electricity consumption can’t be hidden because once you know the size of the solar installation at the various pumping stations you just have to add it to the amount consumed by BWA from BL&P!!
Nothing in this life is free and allowing housing developments in higher elevations means BWA has to push water up a hill, in the case of Castle Grant, to 1,104 feet or about 335 metres.
Have fun calculating how much it will cost!!
https://www.cottoninfo.com.au/sites/default/files/documents/Fundamentals%20EnergyFS_A_3a.pdf
The Reservoir story from the AG is not for sensible people.
After all …
https://barbadosfreepress.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/dale-marshall-idiot.jpg
The more things change the more they remain the same!!
Keep the discussion going.
You haven’t by any chance noticed any of the effects on yourself or the population of consuming water with high estrogen levels over the period of your sojourn in Canada?!!
Once the waste water is treated to acceptable standards and those standards are maintained day in day out, injecting it for percolation into the aquifer is acceptable.
@ John on October 28, 2023 at 11:36 AM said:
(Quote):
You haven’t by any chance noticed any of the effects on yourself or the population of consuming water with high estrogen levels over the period of your sojourn in Canada?!!
(Unquote).
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
An excellent point raised there, Sir John!
Maybe a similar phenomenon can explain why Bajan young males and females are ‘afflicted’ with such large breasts when compared to earlier generations.
Maybe further analysis of this phenomenon can explain why there are such fast increasing rates of breast cancer in Barbados.
Is it true to say that Barbadians (especially the youth) are some of the highest consumers of (processed) chicken meat in the world?
Maybe you can use your excellent research skills to tell us what is fed to chickens to make them ready for the dinner table in such a short period compared to the old-fashioned ‘yard-fowls’; of course, not the-political variety like “Enuff”.
@ John on October 28, 2023 at 11:38 AM said:
(Quote):
Once the waste water is treated to acceptable standards and those standards are maintained day in day out, injecting it for percolation into the aquifer is acceptable.
(Unquote).
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Such an assurance cannot be expected under the present political dispensation and management regime.
This is a management where over 40% of the water, pumped and treated, goes back literally down the drain under the pseudonym of ‘Non-Revenue Water’.
Would you allow the current management to continue operate in a culture where burst pipes are reported but not rectified in a timely manner despite the country is classified as a water-scarce country?
Didn’t the management of the same BWA initially put the blame on vandals tampering with the ‘manholes’ for the overflow of sewage onto the streets?
Who would want to forget the role of ‘lying’ politicians in the South Coast Sewage fiasco?
Maybe the IMF has privatization plans for the BWA in order to bring about the kind of efficiencies required to give the kind of assurance(s) you as John Citizen expect.
The question is who would own this public utility:
Bajan investors with loads of money sitting idly in bank accounts and insurance portfolios?
Or (as in the case of the BL&P) to foreign investors with loads of foreign money which the current government would sell its ‘material soul’ to the financial Devil to get its hands on in order to keep Bajans living with a false image of paradise called Conspicuous Consumption?
I did not know 🐇 /🐰 does comedy.
One only has to look at the videos provided by Hants to note his delight in music, fine women and current events in Barbados.
Toronto’s water is not his kryptonite.
Had some tasty chicken a day this week at a function but can’t remember the last time before that I ate any.
Went off it a while back.
I know about laying hens, but never looked into their feed.
At the end of their lifecycle they are prized for stewing, and real cheap if you know the farmer.
@ TheOGazerts,
I admire the educated intellectual maguffees on BU and do read some of their posts but I spend most of my time enjoying music videos thanks to Google and YouTube.
Hants on October 23, 2023 at 12:50 PM said:
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Should I visit Barbados will be buying bottled water for drinking.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Hants
Was just responding to your comment a few days ago about buying bottled water next time you come to Barbados.
My bet is our water is far better than most urbanized areas in the developed world because of the coral cap and wanted to show you why … and get a laugh.
That’s the reason I have said that COVID is/was waterborne as well as airborne which is borne out by looking at the most affected countries and areas within countries.
That’s why lockdowns were so ineffectual because those in areas with affected water sit in the homes and consume the affected water.
Common sense says if you caught it from water you got a large dose, far larger than if you caught it from airborne transmission.
Ground water is superior in quality to surface water because of filtration and time of travel to the wells.
Surface water has everything and anything in it.
Turned out not many treatment plants were using UV as a final stage.
BTW!!!
Good news ?
https://barbadostoday.bb/2023/11/01/wyndham-grand-barbados-upbeat-about-winter-occupancy/
More help.
https://barbadostoday.bb/2023/11/01/medical-boost/