Barbadians Face Utility Challenges After Hurricane Beryl; Firms Strive for Solutions

“With Ionics, because we had ramped up the production from our Belle [Pumping Station], we were able over the night into the morning to send additional water into that distribution system directly to St Stephen’s, and as a result, we were able to start pumping only about an hour, two hours ago water up into University [Drive], Wanstead Drive, West Terrace, Husbands Heights, St James. That particular area, that was the second area outside of Hampton distribution system that was out of water recently.”

Halliday said those areas should be receiving water again.

“Notwithstanding the fact that we were not able to pump from the Ionics desalination plant optimally, we should now have water going to those affected areas. Out of the Bowmanston area, as the system becomes replenished, as the lines become charged, based on demand, those customers in those distribution systems that are affected directly by the Bowmanston area such as the water that’s going into Golden Ridge, Castle Grant, St Joseph and the environs, they too, will see less incidence of outages and improvement in the water pressure over the next 18 to 24 hours.”

The BWA boss told reporters that the Groves situation was taking a little longer, having not been online, and the company got it to pump at 25 per cent and now two-thirds.

He explained that the variable frequency drives, which determine the flow and pressure of the water, had to be changed.

“So, we are comfortable at this point in time with where we are. We are comfortable that we have done certainly what we needed to do,” Halliday said.

He said that the tanker service was immediately deployed, particularly to critical areas such as the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and the Ambulance Service. The tanker service continues to be made available to the people in the north, especially in light of the evidence of brown water, he added.

The Barbados National Oil Company Ltd (BNOCL) reassured the public that there were no major concerns regarding fuel supply. Damien Catlyn, group health safety and quality manager, said: “We have in excess of 17 days supply of fuel on island for diesel and around 12 days supply for gasoline, with the vessel en route to Trinidad to collect 30 000 barrels more of gasoline, 19 000 barrels of diesel; and those would be offloaded on island, hopefully over the weekend. We also have about 15 000 barrels of heavy fuel oil for Light & Power that’s on board the vessel as well. So, there is no danger of shortage on island at the moment,”

He explained that recent shortages at some petrol stations were due to “surge” or “panic buying” rather than an actual shortage of fuel on the island.

Another vessel is on its way to Barbados with four more containers of the product. “That is the liquified natural gas, and our field is still producing natural gas at present. So, again, we are not in any major concern in relation to fuels,” Catlyn reported.

Telecommunications providers Digicel and Flow reported progress in restoring services. Digicel announced that 87 per cent of its business customers were back online, with remaining issues primarily due to fibre breaks or power outages. Flow assured customers that reconnections were being treated as a priority.

“We are actively working with the Barbados Light and Power,” said Digicel’s head of marketing Ashley Dyall. “We have an open line with them. And once that is sorted, those customers would also be online.”

Flow’s communications manager Allan Harris added: “While there are going to be some Barbadians out there without fixed connectivity – that’s broadband, television and, of course, landline – we are treating reconnections as a matter of priority. Once our damage assessment crew has returned with the relevant information, we will be having our engineers deployed into the field as soon as possible.”

emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb