Submitted by Bentley Norville
The south coast sewage treatment plant was originally intended to be tertiary treatment.
The major issue with water in Barbados is getting enough for irrigation. The requirements for water for domestic purposes can be met by the water produced by the Barbados Water Authority (BWA). There are several methods for producing additional water for irrigation. In 2014 I sent an article to Barbados Underground (BU) titled Agriculture and feeding our people.
Agriculture and Feeding Our People
Posted on by David
Submitted by Bentley Norville With all the recent and current talk on agriculture and our gargantuan food import bill a serious rethink on how we acquire our food is urgently required. With our food import bill around 800 to 900 … Continue reading →
This is one method. Also changing the antiquated methods we farm (for food crops) is another way to go. I’ve also submitted articles on this to BU.
As it relates to using water from sewage treatment plants this can also be done. There are 3 stages of sewage treatment, namely primary treatment, secondary treatment and tertiary treatment. The south coast sewage treatment plant was originally intended to be tertiary treatment (when I worked on the project back in 1983) but was later changed to primary treatment, so I’ve been informed. The final effluent from the tertiary treatment plant was supposed to have been pumped uphill near the Ministry of Agriculture compound to irrigate food crops not intended for consumption raw. This was meant as a pilot project. With the change in the plant system all this went out the window. We have adequate water in Barbados to supply our needs. The problem is not lack of water but management of our water resources.
The 1977-1978 Barbados Water Resources Study was an excellent project that outlined the direction for the management of water resources in Barbados to take. Interestingly there’s only one individual in Barbados still alive who worked on that project (Nicky Sealy, Keith Johnson, Arthur Archer are all gone. Nobody currently at BWA was involved. By the way, the project also developed systems for sewering the Belle area as well as disposal of sewage in the Scotland District. Over the past several weeks I’ve been trying to get hold of the report since there’s a project that I’m currently working on that could benefit from some of the information contained therein.
This is a response to someone who raised the question with me a few days ago. I’m the individual who was on the Barbados Water Resources Study back in 1977 and is still practicing.
Crystal clear by Bentley…
Nothing more to say on the topic.
Mismanagement of epic proportions ongoing at the BWA – and yet we get the SAME FAILED managers being appointed as ‘consultants’ to continue the idiocy with the next big failure scheduled at $400 million (Another ’tertiary’ Sewerage plant)
But then again, after watching the performance on ‘Christ Church Speaks’ on CBC Monday night it is clear that the place is being run by jokers…
Essentially, the PM has the VERY SAME complaints and concerns that are raised by ordinary citizens… BUT SHE IS POWERLESS (or clueless) to solve them….and the various ‘ministers’ all look like lost sheep…
Excuses! Excuses! Excuses!…
No Action, Talk Only… (NATO)
What a place!!
What a curse!!
Why are we not doing more to establish water security?
If we are comfortable with this lethargic approach to water management there can be no hope.
@ David
What water security what!??
Name ANY area where we are doing well and making wise decisions…
Not even with the ‘kadooment’ nonsense or even simple sports like cricket..
The curse is UNIVERSALLY effective boss…
#Bajanbushbathsorbust….
Ther exists water studies from 1968 and 1978 and management plans for a limited resource, approximately 44 million gallons per day.
If you were to read them now you would find they were not followed.
It wasn’t/isn’t the BWA’s fault if the GOB decided to take 4 water catchment areas and allocate them to golf courses and housing development. The GOB blew 4 million gallons per day in Westmoreland, Apes Hill and Sandy Lane.
What was/is left to the BWA for the past 30 years was/is to manage what resources are left.
It is clear they have done an exceptional job.
A day or two ago I passed a burst pipe in the road on my way to do some business with a crew from BWA starting to dig up the road.
When I passed back in less than an hour it was fixed and the crew was gone.
Long ago I would have seen a green tarpaulin pitched side of the road and a large crew shading themselves.
There are no more green tents today.
I say that in the 1990’s, we ran out of easily available water to allocate to our needs.
I give the BWA high marks for leak reduction and water metering.
In my area over the past 40 years I have only once ever experienced a week long water outage and that was in the 1980’s.
It is only now that BWA is reaching the limit of what it can do with what is available that I am beginning to see more frequent outages as it has to divert water around the country.
The Government insists on allowing more construction and increasing water demand to grow the economy.
The biggest change we can make to capping water demand is to cap construction!!
Look at this idiot.
He focuses attention on a reservoir when the pipes behind him should be the focus.
The pipes allow the diversion of water up over Mount Pleasant from lower elevations.
Ultimately, the availability of water will not be sufficient to fill it without the problem becoming a severe problem at lower elevations.
More houses on good agricultural land reduces food production and increases water demand.
The idiot is not telling us idiots that!!
What amount of water is available from the sewage plants we have built?
That is the number which will tell us how far it will go towards addressing our problems.
Obviously, it will be less than what is collected from what is supplied to the sewered areas, and it may be less by alot.
That is a fact because only a fraction of what is supplied will end up in the sewer.
There will be leaks and other water consumption that go into the ground and not the sewer.
We may have to go to the Bermuda model!!
How anyone can contemplate having a ‘Barbados water AUTHORITY’ whose role is to kow-toe to a pack of clueless politicians, and to ‘make the best’ of what stupid decisions such politicians make, amazes a bushman…
Basic common sense (of the Bushman sort) dictates that the WHOLE POINT of having a highly qualified and resourced AUTHORITY – is to ENSURE that national resources are managed in a professional, sustainable and transparent way… DESPITE idiotic political inclinations…
But BECAUSE we default to a position where such complex technical decision-making is DICTATED by political considerations, made by short-term political parasites, we have CREATED a society that is DOOMED to mediocrity, begging, selling what little assets we have remaining, and complaining to the international community about our need for concessions…
The MOST PITIFUL sight is the spectacle of these ’technical experts’ being forced to publicly PROSTRATE themselves at these public meetings, and in the Well of Parliament, to defend the idiotic political decisions – that mostly went AGAINST their own professional advice…. like the eunuchs that they are…
Even in Sport we now have a ‘Political’ decision to incur a questionable $50m debt to spend on Kensington (Lord knows why) …. after just begging for a gift from China for a ‘fish-shaped’ Stadium.
According to the Empress, she just ‘decided’ to hand millions of dollars in taxpayers assets over to a private company called UCAL – because the clowns that THEY put in place at the Ministry are NOT capable (or cannot be bothered,) to maintain new equipment in working order.
…one wonders what these ‘ministry workers’ will do now …besides collect their pay…
What a curse!!
What a place!!
Watch this timelapse photography of the Villages at Coverly and see if you can see what is missing!!
Where are the tanks?
Perhaps under the houses?
Bush Tea on November 7, 2023 at 8:42 AM said:
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How anyone can contemplate having a ‘Barbados water AUTHORITY’ whose role is to kow-toe to a pack of clueless politicians, and to ‘make the best’ of what stupid decisions such politicians make, amazes a bushman…
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In the days of Nicky Sealy and the WWD, Tom Adams came up with the idea of developing the Belle but because of the Act he needed approval.
So, he met with Nicky Sealy and some of the engineers involved in the Water Resources study and things must have got hot.
One engineer told me that Nicky Sealy was the only man he ever heard tell Tom Adams to kiss his ass!!
Today the GOB is building a $100 million Hospital in Waterford Bottom with no thought of the concerns about pharmaceuticals getting into the water supply.
Why do you think the few substantial houses that were built in the past had parapet roofs?
Was it really to protect the roofs from hurricane winds, or was it to gutter the roofs and store the water?
I have seen one example where the water was led from the one exit in the parapet to a small elevated copper lined tank to supply warm water and the overflow then went to a far larger underground tank for storage.
That’s how many people connected with a plantation got safe drinking water.
Hurricanes were few and far between but demand for water was 24/7.
Over the past several weeks I’ve been trying to get hold of the report since there’s a project that I’m currently working on that could benefit from some of the information contained therein.
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Go to the public library in town.
In the 80’s and 90’s and 10’s the full 6 volume study was available to the public.
Recently I checked and some volumes were missing.
“It wasn’t/isn’t the BWA’s fault if the GOB decided to take 4 water catchment areas and allocate them to golf courses and housing development. The GOB blew 4 million gallons per day in Westmoreland, Apes Hill and Sandy Lane.”
First thing first. The Great Brain is functioning well at this time. Don’t get carried away.
–x–
This morning I was reading where the government leased some land for 50 years for $100/year. I am not going to dwell on if this was a good or bad act, but rather on the point that it appears this fact caught some of our leaders by surprise. Perhaps people were aware and some forgot,
It bothers me that the smartest people in the world often come up short. Folks ‘are not smarter’ than us, but they run rings around us. Their front men negotiate with our government get a good deal and later sell out to private parties. It then takes us 25 years to find out things are mot working as they should.
Sometimes I look at the names that we choose and wonder if our subconscious often rule out conscious.
Ecstasy
Pyramid
(I seem to recall some other names.. struggling)
listening to Brasstacks right now.
More complaints about water. Lady says she waiting since Sunday for a tanker truck.
@Hants
The blogmaster does not consider the mismanagement of a tanker truck as a water issue in the context of establishing water security. That is more a matter of incompetence. We see tanker trucks from the BWA ‘wetting down’ roads during laying of pipes after rain has fallen.
Hants on November 7, 2023 at 10:27 AM said:
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listening to Brasstacks right now.
More complaints about water. Lady says she waiting since Sunday for a tanker truck.
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Higher elevations?
The problem with the lower elevations and diversion of water from them is that the hotels and most of the economy are there.
Would have thought that with all this rain BWA would have to face a lower demand as no one needs to water land!!
@ Bushie,
page one of BarbadosToday.bb
Attorney General looking down a hole in the road at Horse Hill, st.Joseph.
@ Hants
That hole is nothing compared to the DEEP PIT, otherwise called The ‘Barbados judicial quagmire’, that he is looking into every day.
…but of course he helped to dig THAT quagmire, …so if they attempted to fill it, he may well end up covered in the debris…
BWA PUMP STATION IN ST. JOHN TAKEN OFFLINE TEMPORARILY
Nov 6, 2023
The Barbados Water Authority today Monday, November 6th advises residents of some St. George, St. John and St. Philip districts that it was forced to take one of its facilities in St John offline. This action was taken to mitigate against discoloured water being…
https://barbadoswaterauthority.com/service-disruptions/
Every year Bowmanston shuts down because of discoloured water.
It supplies 1.7 million gallons of water per day out of the 44 mgd pumped by BWA and others.
You may be looking at standard management practice (SOP) in use since Senn wrote his report in 1946.
What has changed is the number of houses it supplies!!
That has nothing to with BWA id the GOB disregards known realities and allows development!!
@ David,
the word you used ” incompetence ” could be replaced by ” indifference “
Hants on November 7, 2023 at 10:55 AM said:
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@ David,
the word you used ” incompetence ” could be replaced by ” indifference “
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The incompetence and indifference is at levels way above BWA!!
The major issue with water in Barbados is getting enough for irrigation. The requirements for water for domestic purposes can be met by the water produced by the Barbados Water Authority (BWA). There are several methods for producing additional water for irrigation. In 2014 I sent an article to Barbados Underground (BU) titled Agriculture and feeding our people.
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It isn’t!!
Go to Senn (1946) and you will find where irrigated agriculture can be easily done.
https://imgur.com/NqWLBxO
https://imgur.com/bLtOYVB
Then go to Google Earth and you will see what the problem is.
The major problem with Barbados is the management of public services (including SOEs).
There is an international customer-focused quality management standard (ISO 9001) that can bring almost immediate relief, but we prefer our home-grown management methods which we like to complain about.
Since we like to complain about our preference, we seem blind to the obvious solution within our grasp – it is simply easier to complain.
@ John
Under the TCP laws a house with a total covered square footage of 1500 or less does not requre a water tank for rain water.
John A on November 7, 2023 at 3:18 PM said:
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@ John
Under the TCP laws a house with a total covered square footage of 1500 or less does not requre a water tank for rain water.
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As GOB shares the misery among us all you will find the owners of these houses will buy a black plastic tank regardless of how ugly it makes the house look!!
In Bermuda the capacity of the tank is determined by codes and is built into the foundation.
Import more food and water. nuff tourisses coming.
https://barbadostoday.bb/2023/11/07/big-business/
@ John
Yep. From 1501 to 3000 sq ft of covered area of the house though you looking at a 3000 gal storage tank. Then from 3000 sq ft covered the tank requirement increases again.
John A on November 7, 2023 at 8:43 PM said:
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@ John
Yep. From 1501 to 3000 sq ft of covered area of the house though you looking at a 3000 gal storage tank. Then from 3000 sq ft covered the tank requirement increases again.
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How do you fit a 3000 sq.ft tank onto a lot at Coverly?
The best that can be done is to feed the output from guttering on each house to a central storage tank. potentially alot of digging after the fact assuming it wasn’t factored in at construction.
https://www.coralstonerealty.com/villages-coverley-sugar-apple-begonia-0#:~:text=Lot%20sizes%20range%20between%204%2C200,ft.
FOR SALE
ID#: CSR2001
Type: Residential
Name: The Villages at Coverley, Sugar Apple Village – BEGONIA
Address: Coverley, Christ Church, Barbados
Floor Area: 1,250 sq.ft.
Land Area: 5,201 sq.ft.
Bedrooms: 4
Bathrooms: 2
Sale Price: USD $250,435.00 –
BDS $500,869.00
Convert Currency To:
U.S. Dollar (USD)
Currency Conversion Disclaimer
Property Description
Begonia Villa is one of 3 & 4 bedroom home designs offered for sale in Sugar Apple Village which is the newest Village located at The Villages at Coverley, Christ Church, Barbados. This model is designed with 4 bedrooms whilst the other 3 designs – Lotus, Anthurium and Palm are 3 bedroom homes. All homes come with enhanced features such as, open plan living and dining, master bedroom with ensuite bathroom and walk-in closet, major appliances, modern kitchens, fenced backyards, landscaping and double parking aprons. Lot sizes range between 4,200 sq. ft. and 7,900 sq. ft.
Source: Nation
@ John
The 1250 sq ft houses would require no tanks at all. I dont think any of them are over 1500 sq ft. Although I understand they are to do a phase with some larger ones but I doubt they will be as large as 1500 sq ft either.
Bypassing a TCP regulation for short time gain only creates a long term problem.
In Bermuda, ANY new house requires the roof to be 80% guttered (these are 100%) AND a storage tank constructed.
Not thinking about the long term.
Jesus peace! They can’t take a bath when the heavy rain is falling?????? They can’t wash clothes, flush toilets or mop floors?????
Man, the only thing they need the pipe water for is drinking, cooking and washing the dishes.
At least they could store enough for that!
I stored mine for the kitchen garden. Covered every bed with mulch too. Leaves and grass clippings. No wetting will be necessary for days, although my soil drainage is great
Heaven help us! Sorry, heaven did help us but we are too stupid to know how to accept the gift.
My water bill will decrease and so will my electricity bill. It was a joy to be naturally cool again.
Source: Nation
https://www.instagram.com/reel/Czedt4uAIG4/
Ms. Mockley and O$A are who destroyed water security in the 1990’s!!
https://barbadostoday.bb/2023/11/12/inclement-weather-impacts-bwa-facilities-again/
@Hants
We have water problems. The country must be proactive and take this issue on board. If we don’t it will follow the same path our economy is going.
The BWA says the adjustments made to reduce the number of affected customers will remain in place.
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Translated into english this means water is being diverted from one area to feed another area so that the misery felt in one area can be equally shared and everyone is equally miserable.
Socialism at work!!
Capitalism would look for alternative sources of water to meet the demand.
It would also eliminate the root causes of the problem, corrupt politicians.
It is ironic that in a world that has so many anti Jewish voices that the same voices will clamour for the implementation of ideas that are themselves, Jewish in origin.
Marx, Lenin, Trotsky etc etc etc
Dude, what is that?
A world salad?
ChatGP wrote that?
Please give the Great Brain some more rest.
Sorry Grasshopper
I did not realise you had never read anything about Churchill!!
You heard about him though …………………. right?
Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy.” —Perth, Scotland, 28 May 1948, in Churchill, Europe Unite: Speeches 1947 & 1948 (London: Cassell, 1950), 347.
AND
“The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of Socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.” —House of Commons, 22 October 1945.
Source: Nation
Told you so!!
Only feasible short-term solution.
Next year if it is really dry, most householders will smell hell, even in areas that normally have good water supply.
Water will have to be diverted to these areas to fill their household tanks.
Ultimately, even that short term solution won’t work.
The GOB will share the misery among citizens.
… all to satisfy the GOB’s headlong dash to build houses on every square inch of Barbados.
… and then the monstrosities …. hotels with no water and no sewage infrastructure.
https://barbadoswaterauthority.com/tender-notice-for-the-installation-of-personal-tank-systems-at-residential-homes-through-out-the-island/#:~:text=The%20Barbados%20Water%20Authority%20(BWA,should%20you%20have%20any%20queries.
Source: Nation
“Yesterday, Ellerton resident and shop owner, Dorris Barrow said: “The water has been brown for about a month and a half, the toilets are brown, and this is two days that we have not had any water in this area of St George. At first the water was cloudy and then it turned brown and areas such as Ellerton, Drax Hall and Melverton are being affected.”
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If the water has been chlorinated it may just need some filtration!!