MORE WATER FOR tOBAGO

The Tobago House of Assembly (THA) is moving to construct additional wells to increase the water supply in the island. The aim is to ultimately produce some 15 million gallons of water daily, which will provide Tobago with a 24-hour supply. In the meantime, the move is to provide an additional five million gallons per day through this process in the immediate short term. Secretary of Public Utilities and Infrastructure at the THA, Hilton Sandy revealed that discussions had already been initiated with a firm in this field. “We met with a company called Earth Water and Lennox Technologies; what we were discussing is the possibility of putting in additional wells,” he said. “What we are looking for here is to put in wells to give us five million gallons of water per day - 3.5 million for the south west, which is the heaviest hit area; Charlotteville/Speyside (in the east end), 5 million gallons; and in the Moriah/Belmont Road area (north central) one million gallons per day. That is in the short term,” Sandy told reporters. “And long term we are looking to put 15 million gallons of water in Tobago; that is to afford the people of Tobago a 24-hour supply of water, taking into consideration all the development plans expected to come on stream, that we’ll have to use the commodity water,” he explained.

Sandy said they were advised that sourcing water through a well system was the way to go because it was “safe,” while on the other hand there was the problem of evaporation of water from the dams during the scorching dry season. “So we should sort of concentrate on well water, taking it within the bedrock, which is within the stone; it is cheaper to process water from the wells than from the open dam,” he noted. Meantime, Sandy said the initial move to desilt the dams at Hillsborough in Mt St George and King’s Bay, Delaford both in east Tobago, was well underway. This is estimated to cost some $20 million, he said. “Even though we are going to put in wells, we are going to desilt the dams, funding for that project is almost accomplished, so soon we would look forward to have the dams desilted,” Sandy reported.