GOVERNMENTOF BARBADOS is looking to invest $120 million on two projects to tackle water problems for thousands of residents
in The Belle, St Michael. In fact, residents there and in surrounding Zone 1 water catchment areas may soon be able to have indoor toilets and baths added onto their homes. How soon they will be able to do this depends on the completion of a re-evaluation of a design to build a sewage treatment plant. This was disclosed by a well-informed Government source yesterday as Democratic Labour Party (DLP) hopeful for the area, Patricia Inniss, gears up to
petition Government for better living conditions for residents. So far 200
people have signed the petition which highlights the fact that 80 per cent of residents are using pit toilets, and are without running water. Inniss said residents intended to petition Government after 4 000 signatures were on the form. "I am not asking for these things speaking on a political platform, but as a human being. Barbados boasts of having the highest human development index, but still has more than 3 000 people with pit toilets which they can't use if it rains," she said. However, the source explained that the plan was being considered to tackle the twin contamination: faecal coliform from human sewage and the growing amount of nitrates in the water. The plan would involve construction of a reverse osmosis plant which would be built by the Barbados Water Authority (BWA) to reduce the level of nitrates that have already made it to the aquifers. This would then be followed by the sewage treatment plant, which was originally designed to include the prison population at the burnt-out Glendairy Prisons. As a result, the capacity of the plant may not be as large as originally planned. "What such a plant would mean is that the restriction on development of existing properties could be lifted . . . . Very soon the BWA should make all these plans public," the source said. This comes after extensive studies were undertaken in recent months to ensure The Belle water catchment, responsible for 60 per cent of the island's drinking water, was not contaminated. Meantime, representative for the area, St Michael East MP Trevor Prescod, said the present administration was doing all in its power to assist the people. "Government is still looking at the alternative of a sewage plant to absorb the supply from the community. That matter has been kept on the agenda," he said. He added that there were some theories which suggested that the area for Zone 1 might be wider than originally thought. However, he said a hydrogeologist would be in a better position to discuss such issues. During the telephone interview, Prescod, who is Minister of Social Transformation, said while some felt nothing was happening, Government was trying to deal with the problem. "We need to be sure that scientific measurements of the area are correct. It has to be a macro sewage plant to absorb the problem," he said.