Gov’t needs to make a statement on VI’s water issues– Hon Penn
“The House is one approach in terms of asking questions, but it shouldn't get to that point, it should be able to have that dialogue before in terms of being able to educate the public sooner,” he said on the July 22, 2022, edition of ‘Da Morning Baff’ radio show on Tola Radio 100.5FM.
Hon Penn added that for the upcoming House of Assembly sitting on Thursday, July 29, 2023, he will be asking a number of questions on the water issues within the Eighth District.
“Now is everywhere in the country seemed to have a serious water issue. Is there a water crisis that were not telling the people about? The minister needs to make a statement on this,” he said.
Let us know what the situation is - Hon Penn
Mr Penn called on the Government to go beyond sending out notices of water disruption and should inform the people about the challenges.
“Let us know what the situation is and then we need to start this sit down and get a plan in place for dealing with the infrastructure. It's going to take a lot of money to deal with the field Water infrastructure in this country, so you have to do it in an approach that is sustainable,” he said.
Virgin Islands News Online (VINO) reached out to the subject Minister, Hon Rymer, in relation to Hon Penn’s comments on a possible water crisis in the VI, however, no response was received up to publication time.
Hon Penn; however, suggested a systemic approach to fixing the VI’s water issues by dealing with more popular areas first and then the others that need addressing.
He vowed that as a Member of the Opposition, he plans to bring the issues to the public for conversation to not just bash the government, but get real solutions for national issues.
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19 Responses to “Gov’t needs to make a statement on VI’s water issues– Hon Penn”
We making a statement soon. If we can’t get slowade to act we jumping on the opposition to form the government!
However, over the last few decades the water function, infrastructure, has been operated in a disjointed, dysfunctional manner, failing miserably to meet the water needs of the territory. The function was not managed in a holistic manner. The ministry had portions while the director had some control of other parts. The non holistic management was/is costly both in service and dollars. For example, supposedly the department in take is approx $5 million dollars annually while taxpayers had to subsidize operations with $21 million dollars. Clearly, this is not a good business model. In my view, water may not be self supporting in the near term, if ever. The average customer may not be able to afford the cost of self-supporting operations; therefore, it needs to be subsidize. Nevertheless, that subsidy should be reduced as much as possible, practical and reasonable.
Ok. Government needs to invest heavily in water desalination plant(s), conveyance, and distribution systems. Government can either outsource (not in favor of privatizing) the operation, maintenance, and repair or keep the operations, maintenance, repair, capitalizing and recapitalizing, etc, in-house. Nonetheless, Government has had a poor track record operating, maintaining, repairing, capitalizing, recapitalizing, etc the system, so outsourcing to a qualified, experienced contractor may be the better option until government get up to speed. We action, not a statement. Talk is cheap. Getting a quality, safe, secure and reliable potable water is not going to come cheap but it is the cost of being water challenged, progressing territory.
District Councils is sh** as they will be just another layer on top of the dysfunction of the government. The harder they come is the harder we will all fall.
non-engineers in engineering positions. That process has setback the functions, turning them into jokes , instead of strong productive organizations, sustainable organizations, ie, Public Works, water and sewage. Water and Sewage should be led by a qualified, experienced civil engineer, preferably a water engineer (hydraulic engineer). If we want the best to deliver quality services, we have to recognize we have to pay for the best. The talent pool in the BVI is not very deep for water engineers. The BVI has not trained effectively to meet its critical needs. Scholarships for critical needs should take priority. Government needs to identify its critical needs. Labor, Education and HR need to partner on this effort.
Your assessment of the operations rings true. However, equity demands that the system be self supporting. Perhaps if people paid what it cost, they would do a better job of conservation..
Water and sewage is not available where we live. We have a cistern, which we pay handsomely to keep cleaned, repaired, and coated. Same for our well-functioning septic.
Why should our tax dollars subsidize the public system? If people had to pay what it truly costs, they would build and maintain adequate cisterns, which are far more environmentally friendly than diesel-powered desal.
Moreover, the first order of business is to ascertain the total production, conveyance, distribution and other costs. Then, it needs to determine what cost a) residential, b) commercial and c) industrial customers will have to be charge to become self-supporting. The current estimated annual operating cost is $26,000,000.00. In my view, the full cost to customers, especially residential customers, will be high, and may even be unaffordable. Commercial and industrial customers cost too will be high but they can pass the cost on to customers. A water expert needs to be hired to run the numbers to see where they land and if government/taxpayers still needs to continue. I will take a wild ass guess that some subsidies may still be required. Run the numbers. Taxpayers may have a disdain about subsidies but it may be a necessity. There is one certainty, ie, desalination is a must. Another must is Water and Sewage must significantly reduce and properly account for water loss. Another must is W&S must periodically test the quality of water and must notify customers when quality falls below established safe standards. I can go…but..