Water & Sewerage woes tell story of partisan politics in VI- Natalio Wheatley
Speaking on the weekly local radio programme Umoja last evening October 25, 2012, Mr Wheatley said the political bickering and shifting of blame illustrates a very scary story. He added that the sewerage problem was one that needed to be solved urgently but continues to be delayed reportedly due to politics.
Host of the show Mr Cromwell Smith had actually raised the issue of the blame game between the two political parties and had said the actions of the politicians were not making “any sense”.
He also recalled the Deputy Premier and Minister for Natural Resources and Labour expressing his concerns about the water and sewerage issues in the Territory and that, prior to him taking up office, had even expressed concern about a possible cholera outbreak, however, to date the problem has not yet been fixed.
Mr Wheatley noted, however, that he wanted “to give the people a little timeline to solve the problem so that we could see clearly what is going on between these two parties because they are really, really doing stuff that is really harming the interest of the people”.
In trying to dig at the root of the issue, Mr Wheatley explained that there was a population explosion in the Territory and Government did not respond accordingly with regards to infrastructure development.
The talk show host then stated that between 1999-2003, the then ruling Virgin Islands Party government had taken some measures to deal with the sewerage issues and that a local contractor was hired. This contractor was identified as Mr Carvin Malone of CBE Engineering. He then added that according to his research, when Government changed in 2003, the contract to address certain sewerage issues around the Territory was taken away from Mr Malone.
At this time, Mr Wheatley made it clear that he did not have the facts as there continues to be an absence of transparency and difficulty in acquiring information from Governments. Mr Smith agreed with Mr Wheatley’s sentiments.
Both men also agreed that it is a norm that when governments change there are often many interference in ongoing contracts for different reasons, including political reasons. Mr Smith, however, stated that if there were problems with Mr Malone’s performance the National Democratic Party (NDP) government should have been made it public knowledge and attempt to iron out the problems so the project should have been moved forward since, “regardless of Mr Malone’s party affiliation, he is a Virgin Islander”.
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