(L-R) Mr Mike Hewitt and Ms Rhonda Harris, Operators Without Borders members. Photo: Facebook

The government of the Virgin Islands (VI) has partnered with Operators Without Borders to tackle the water issues in the territory. Photo: Internet Source

Minister for Communications and Works, Hon Kye M. Rymer (R5) said Operators Without Borders’ team members bring their expertise and dedication to assist the Virgin Islands in fixing the water issues. Photo: Facebook

Fixing leakage issues and pipe repairs are among short-term solutions to the water issues in the Virgin Islands according to Operators Without Borders. Photo: Team of Reporters/File

During a press conference on Thursday, June 19, 2025, Minister for Communications and Works, Hon Kye M. Rymer (R5) said he learned of Operators Without Borders at a recent conference of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS). 

Operators Without Borders, he said, provide skilled professionals to support communities in crisis. According to their website, Operators Without Borders' objective is to assist water and wastewater utilities in developing countries recover from disaster situations, and build capacity through training and mentoring water and wastewater Operators. 

“Hence, it was in April that I made contact with them, and this week was their earliest availability as they are deployed all over the world. Thanks to them, three engineers and operators are currently on the ground collaborating with our teams to make a positive impact.”

Hon Rymer said they each bring their expertise and dedication to our territory. 

“We are grateful for their swift response and look forward to a lasting partnership as we transform our water systems for the better.”

To the people of the Virgin Islands, I thank you for your patience, your resilience and your trust. We recognise the challenges you face and we are committed to transforming this national priority into a daily reality of reliable, safe water for every home and business

Mr Mike Hewitt, Owner of Almaquin Enterprises and member of Operators Without Borders, said during their three-day visit so far, they have visited all locations and reservoirs on Tortola and met with operators. 

Due to time constraints, they will be unable to visit the sister islands on this trip. 

“The operators have been very helpful and very knowledgeable about what they do so we’ve had very good discussions with the entire team and gathered as much information as we can…we got documentation for what we could find and now we go through the process of putting it all together and we will put together a report.”

VI water issues a common regional problem

Meantime, Ms Rhonda Harris, Chief Technical Officer, Operational Technical Services LLC and Chief Executive Officer, Work Force Resource Solutions, 501C Nonprofit Agency, said their findings in the VI is common to most of the islands in the Caribbean. 

“There is a lot of leakage due to the pressure issues…and there are a lot of ageing pipes that we know need to be repaired and replaced…it’s not unique, it’s the same issues on all the islands ”

She added that while it is a challenge to address both of these issues with narrow roads and ongoing road works, better collaboration between road works and water system repairs is needed. 

“Do those together rather than fix a road and come back and tear it up and fix the water,” she advised. 

Short, medium & long-term solutions

Operators Without Borders will be looking at opportunities for short, medium and long-term solutions to the water issues in the territory. 

“We have done a high-level overview and found some things that we believe can be fixed in the short term with the leakage repairs and fixed in the medium term, which will be about one to three years, and initially, after that, there are some longer-term things to be done,” Harris stated.