Up to late Monday, workers from the Water Department in St. Kitts were desperately trying to restore supply to all consumers, especially those in The Village and Mattingley Heights located in western Basseterre.
In a brief statement released to the media on Monday afternoon, Manager of the Water Department & Engineer, Mr. Cromwell Williams, indicated that all other districts should have already been restored.
However, some schools in Basseterre had to suspend sessions again, only hours after resuming on Tuesday, due to the lack of water in their bathrooms and throughout their facilities.
Williams explained that the heavy rainfall greatly hampered the restoration exercise, especially in the Wingfield and Franklands areas of the island. Crews were forced to take the Wingfield River offline and this would have resulted in there being little or no water going into their main facility, the La Guerite Treatment Plant, which serves many parts of Basseterre. As a result the reservoir was almost empty therefore persons in the higher parts of the capital, such as the Village would have been out of water.
Additionally, said the manager, “We have had a particular difficulty in going up to some of the sources, like Cayon’s Greenhill…where the workers attempted to go this morning (Monday), but it was impossible to do so.” Roads were washed out and though they tried to use tractors as an alternate means of transport these had certain limitations.
The main source of water in St. Kitts comes from a combination of rivers and wells which are heavily dependent on the supply of electricity, which was interrupted in some areas over the weekend. Though they have standby generators for some of the wells, Williams admitted that sometimes these are not functioning; and where this is the case, he assured that electricians have been working to have them repaired so that they could be available when the electricity from SKELEC is not accessible.
Williams cautioned consumers to use water sparingly during these times, until full restoration is accomplished. Though they might have had water in storage, said Williams, this could be quickly used up, so every effort is needed to ensure that current supplies last as long as possible.