‘Govt spending $½M a month unnecessarily for water!’ – Hon Fraser
Hon Fraser was at the time speaking on VIP’s radio show ‘Let’s Talk’ heard last night February 18, 2015 on ZBVI 780 AM.
“It was only after the question and answer period of the Third Sitting of the Fourth Session of the Second House of Assembly that I became fully aware of the extent to which the Government’s sabotage of Biwater runs in terms of pain and suffering and hemorrhaging of the Government’s treasury,” Hon Fraser said as he made his opening remarks on the show.
Govt’s inability to accept water
“I had heard before of the Government’s inability to accept and distribute the 2.3 million gallons per day from the Biwater plant. But this was the first time I heard to what extent and it was the first time that I got an admission that it is a result of their own failures,” he said.
"Imagine, BiWater is supposed to supply government with 2.3 million gallons of water each day, and if government doesn't take all of that 2.3 million, government still has to pay for it. And knowing that to be the case, our government has for the month of December, took an average of only 1.26 million gallons a day, and only three times going above 1.5 million a day in that period, and in the same period falling below half a million gallons at times," he said.
Cycle of careless waste by NDP Govt
“According to the figures given by the Minister [Hon Mark H. Vanterpool (R4)] for January, Government paid $801,918 to Biwater for 59.8 million gallons in the month of December, even though only 32.813 million gallons was actually received and should have cost the Government only $440,022 except for the Government’s willful negligence after three years to expand a broken water system and to upgrade where necessary,” he said.
“This is a waste of $361,896 paid out to Biwater alone, not to mention the BVI Electricity Corporation, which gets another sum of wasted money because of the willful act not to adequately assist the corporation in accessing a proper generator. Only now after three years and three months in office, after many questions to the Minister in the Sitting of the House of Assembly on Thursday February 12, 2015 is the Minister talking about expanding the water system to all the people of Tortola coupled with the necessary upgrades,” he said.
“This cycle of careless waste of taxpayers’ dollars continues to mount as according to the Minister the month of January was no different. From the figures given Government paid $956,320 to Biwater for 71.3 million gallons in the month of January, even though only 48.5 million gallons was actually received and should have cost the Government only $651,471. Again, except for the same willful negligence this is a waste of $304,848 paid out to Biwater alone,” he said.
“The waste gets even worse when you hear from the Minister that during all this time, the water plant in Sea Cow’s Bay is still producing water at the rate of 320,000 gallons a day to go into the Hannah Hill reservoir only because his Government failed after three years to upgrade the pipelines along the Ridge Road to get the water from the Sabbath Hill reservoir to the Hannah Hill reservoir,” said Hon Fraser.
“This is something I asked the same Minister about two years ago and he had said they had it under control. From my calculations considering that the plant at Sea Cows Bay receive about $17 per 1,000 gallons, Government would have paid for the month of December $168,640 and another $168,640 in January, which means at this rate Government is paying out over half a million unnecessary dollars each month while at the same time people in many sections of Tortola such as Harvers, Threlfall, Sage Mountain, parts of Brewers Bay, and Spooners Estate have no access to water. And other places like Sea Cow's Bay, West End, and Carrot Bay get water only a few hours a day; and in Cane Garden Bay, and Brewers Bay they only get water some days in the week for a few hours,” said Hon Fraser.
Someone must be held accountable
“The issues surrounding the production and supply of water at the Biwater plant are filled with malicious intent on the part of this NDP Government. [They] refused to acknowledge their obligations to provide electricity to the plant by refusing to assist the BVI Electricity Corporation with getting the necessary generating capacity. Instead they went out and rented an engine from Puerto Rico and now I hear the Minister telling the House of Assembly that the electricity generation is inadequate due to some overheating supply cable, thus making it prohibitive for the water plant to run at full capacity,” he said.
“Someone needs to explain to the people what is going on and be held accountable for this nonsense,” Hon Fraser concluded.
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23 Responses to “‘Govt spending $½M a month unnecessarily for water!’ – Hon Fraser”
As for Fraser, while asking for the NDP to explain what is going on to the people and asking that they be held accountable for this "nonsense"...how about you take responsibility for your part in this debacle? Where is your accountability and your responsibility for this water situation? or do you engage in revisionist history and conveniently forgot your part?
Reply
When NDP got elected the first thing them did was to fire the one man who knew anything about Biwater, a man with a legally binding contract. And from there they went on a campaign to slaughter Biwater. They stalled, they stopped, they blocked and even threaten Biwater. The project which was slated to take 8 months, ended up taking 36 months, yes 3 years. This was expected of the NDP because they campaigned promising the people that they would stop the project and send Biwater packing.
People like you should see past the propoganda and seak the truth. These people hate for foreign investors is documented. The NDP Representative for the 5th District said that Biwater is worse than Bates Hill. The NDP At-Large Representative Walwyn said Digicel killed the middle-class. So now you have it.
all of them are a waste need a young government not a bunch of hypocrites