BAJANS CRY FOUL ON WATER RESTRICTIONS- NEWS ARTICLE
The Barbados Water Authority (BWA) must get its act together.
This was the cry amongst some Barbadians about the newly imposed water ban which is to take effect from Tuesday.
The three-month ban which was implemented as a result of a drought currently affecting the country, prohibits the use of water for activities such as washing vehicles by hose and the watering of gardens.
Greg Elcock, who operates a car wash in the hub of Six Roads, St.Philip for the past three years, said that his business will suffer as a result of the ban.
"I can't wash cars. It's going to affect my customers. I need to use the powerwasher, that's what does the work properly," he said.
He added that the BWA should consider putting metres on the standpipes, if they wanted to conserve water.
Over in St. Patricks, Christ Church, small farmer Andrew Alleyne, who was attending to his garden, described the water ban as "a step backwards".
"The BWA must pull their act together. . .they must say what they are actually trying to do with the water. If they're going to put up a tank, they must put up a tank where they could lead the water from the tank to people's homes.
"It don't make sense you putting up a tank, and then still have to go back to the tank to catch the water," Alleyne said.
Alleyne said, however, that the drought had affected him, since he usually watered his garden with rainwater.
Neighbor, Tyrone Chase, who was washing his car with a hose, said he did not see the sense in the ban and provided an alternative.
"I know they have alot of underground streams out here, springs, [and] that is water they can use. . .the one down St. James that was led back into the ocean. . . that could have been utilised and they would never got water shortage," Chase said, "for a small island like this and got water shortage, I find that hard to believe."
He pointed out that the BWA must shoulder some of the blame for the water shortage, since they too wasted water.
"The water authority wastes water. When you have a burst main or pipe, they would take like five days and all sorta things just to come and fix the pipe. That's water wasting," Chase said.
Ralph Watson, who was using water from a hose to mix concrete, described the ban as "utter foolishness" and pointed out that the BWA should target businesses and not only "the poor man".
"Go into some [hotels] and you would see they taking water from the tap to fill up the pools," Watson said.
He noted that he did not think the ban was the result of a drought but a much bigger issue that the BWA was being tight-lipped about.
Over in water-scarce St. Joseph, Horse Hill resident, Shawn Webster said he was neither for nor against the ban, since its implementation would have no effect on him.
"Horse Hill hardly get water. Sometimes two days, three days may pass and we never get any water. . .sometimes you just don't bathe at all.
"The people don't have any water to do any stuff like that so I don't think [the ban] is really going to be a problem," he said.
