NAWSA seeks to develop its operations

News ..........................

The New Today

Week ending Mar 13, 2010

THE NEW TODAY - Week ending Mar 13, 2010

The Board of Directors of the National Water and Sewerage Authority (NAWASA) and the management of the utility company have developed a five-year strategic plan for the company. Speaking at a press conference last week Wednesday, Chairman of the Board of Directors Terrence Smith said that for the first time in the history of the authority a five-year strategic plan was approved last October.

The plan which covers the period 2009 -2014 charts the way forward for the growth and development of the water sector in the country. Smith said that an important element of the strategic plan is what is referred to as demand management.

However, he was quick to point out that this would not bring relief to the current water crisis that has been spurred on by the severe dry season as a result of the El Nino weather pattern. Smith spoke of the Board being responsible for the long-term development and success of NAWASA.

"So we are not concerned simply with the present dry season, or this year 2010, or even next year 2011. We should be concerned, as any responsible Board, with the long term success growth and development of the entity," he said. One aspect of the plan is the need to focus on public education in an effort to create behavioural changes among the population in the way they see and use water.

Another component is to have NAWASA speedily attend to the prevalent leaks in the main pipes around the island. The NAWASA Chairman said another element that the company is seeking to address is the promotion of widespread use of rainwater harvesting. This, he said would involve the widespread use of guttering, down spouts, properly designed tanks, and small pumping systems to maximize the use of the annual rainfall.

According to Smith, the rainwater harvesting initiative would be facilitated by legislation. Acting General Manager of NAWASA, Christopher Husbands announced that there are projects on the drawing board for which the utility continues to seek funding. Husbands agreed that there is need for increased water storage on the island.

"We need large... reservoirs that can store millions of gallons. So even if we have larger storage, in times of drought persons still need to change their behaviour," he said. Husbands indicated that from a study conducted in early 2000, certain key sites were identified to be developed for large ground water storage, and they are currently pursuing the finalisation of these projects.

The water utility boss noted that the only current reservoir that provides the normal type of raw water storage is the Grand Etang Lake that was developed in 1994. "We clearly need to build more than one of this type of raw water storage so that we can distribute on a more reliable basis to different parts of the island," he said.

NAWASA is currently hard-pressed to satisfy the demands of water supply which has significantly dropped as a result of the drought situation that is facing Grenada and other Caribbean countries.

Comments

Add New

RSS

Write comment

Name:

Email:

Website:

Title:

UBBCode:

Please input the anti-spam code that you can read in the image.

< Prev		Next >

Mechanic charged with causing death

A 23-year old mechanic of Mt. Gay, St. George’s is facing a charge of causing death ...