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Millions of $$$ leaking through the pipes – Vanterpool

Says Water & Sewerage Department is a problem
Hon. Vanterpool says millions of dollars are slipping through the pipes from leakage and something has to be done about it.
Minister for Communications and Works Hon. Mark Vanterpool.
Minister for Communications and Works Hon. Mark Vanterpool.
ROAD TOWN, Tortola, VI - The Water and Sewerage Department (WSD) has come in for heavy criticism from the Minister responsible, who stated that the WSD is a problem with millions of dollars in deficits and action needs to be taken to address the situation urgently.

“It’s time to bring the Water and Sewerage Department into real focus, you cannot have a deficit of 12 or 13 million dollars where it can be much better than that, there is somewhere in the Water and Sewerage Department where some five to seven million dollars is slipping out somewhere,” charged the Minister for Communications and Works Hon. Mark Vanterpool during today's, March 23, 2012 Budget Address that is currently underway in the House of Assembly.

Minister Vanterpool said while there has been focus on the water contracts, “the whole water and sewerage department is a problem”. He stated that the department spent some 16 million and only collected about three million.

According to Vanterpool, the problem at WSD might not be with a specific person or any particular government of past or present.

“We cannot operate a department which is supposed to collect a certain amount of revenue on an annual basis and they are not collecting it and we sit by and every year goes by we are focusing on this contract over here, we are focusing on that contract over there and in the meantime, the baby is drowning in the water,” the outspoken government minister said.

Minister Vanterpool said while Government will be dealing with the contracts, it has to “zero in and focus” on the WSD and Government will not be waiting on any foreign company to focus on the issues at the WSD. He said he has been speaking to a number of accounting and technical people, and it was recognized it is the issue of pipes and leaking.

“… but we are waiting on Biwater to solve that when we can solve that ourselves. The money is leaking out in the pipes and we are waiting on somebody to come do it for us. Madam Speaker that is not going to happen, we are going to take action now and solve that problem.”

He said he doesn’t know if the solution to dealing with the WSD would be to have it as a statutory body or merge it with the BVI Electricity Corporation. He also said it could be for the WSD to be put under more “focus management” into its own statutory position where a group of “smart people and intelligent people” can have the time to focus on the department and its operations.

7 Responses to “Millions of $$$ leaking through the pipes – Vanterpool ”

  • ooooo (23/03/2012, 14:09) Like (0) Dislike (0) Reply
    i believe most of that money leaked into the hands of ocean conversion
  • Iron Lion (23/03/2012, 14:17) Like (0) Dislike (0) Reply
    Fraser again, lord god have mercy. I thought they said the other man who shared his first name had fixed things at WSD when he was director? Another lie? And they say NDP got spin? They got more spin than the merry go round! hahaiie
    • on the ball (23/03/2012, 16:20) Like (0) Dislike (0) Reply
      bring back willock he had the ting jammi he made lots of $$$$ for government
      • Culture (23/03/2012, 20:21) Like (0) Dislike (0) Reply
        The Accounts Division staff under the past head is who collected the money. over five million dollars was collected in one year. Then you all turn the place over to an Indian who don't know his a$$ from his elbow and run good people out of WSD.
  • Iron Lion (23/03/2012, 14:19) Like (0) Dislike (0) Reply
    Merge it with BVIEC and we pay one utility bill, it only makes sense!!
    • Confucius (25/03/2012, 09:07) Like (0) Dislike (0) Reply
      With all due respect, merging the WSD with the Electricity Corporation would be like putting the fox in charge of the chicken coop! We are being REAMED to the max by the Electricity Corportation and all the government will end up doing is raising our water bills by introducing a "water variance" to cover the loss of the leaked water! Hire a dowser or two or three and find the darn leaks ~ then FIX THEM! Make the contract worth their time (based on the number of locations found and the approximate volume of water lost) but do not pay unless they are successful in finding the leaks. The contract (and payment) could be based on the annual volume of water lost per year and successfully recovered for each location found. The incentive would be to find the most leaks in the shortest period of time ~ for the biggest possible pay cheque.
  • licks from within (25/03/2012, 23:49) Like (0) Dislike (0) Reply
    poor water and sewerage look licks from your very own Minister


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