It appears that plans for the resumption of desalinated water from Crocus Bay, Anguilla, have been falling in place in such a coordinated manner that it is now possible to give an actual date for the switch to be turned on.
“We are looking to flying the switch by October 26 and to do the official opening at Crocus Bay on Saturday, November 7. But in terms of water running through our pipes, we are looking for that to happen by October 26.” That was told to The Anguillian on Monday this week, October 19, by Mr. Christopher Richardson, Chairman of the Water Corporation of Anguilla.
Mr. Richardson was at the time reporting that two containerised trains, each capab
le of providing 260,000 gallons of desalinated water a day, had not only arrived in Anguilla on Friday, October 17, but were in fact already installed at the existing Crocus Bay plant. He reported that the equipment should have been received on the island earlier, but was delayed because further work had to be undertaken to reduce the ambient noise level. This necessity took into consideration a number of neighbours, including CBlue Boutique Hotel.
“Right now we have the two trains. We were waiting for them, but they were delayed as we were looking at the ambient levels and wanted to be good neighbours,” Mr. Richardson stated. “We had to go back to the factory after meeting with CBlue to have the trains containerised. The thickness is about six inches so everything is in containers, closed and sealed. In terms of the building, we had previously put blocks on the inside area so that some of the noise could be much more contained; so the noise factor has now been resolved.”
Mr. Richardson said he had visited a similar system in the Turks and Caicos Islands and had not heard any loud pounding from the containerised trains – but only a whisper.
With the trains now in place in Anguilla, they were expected to have been connected to the electricity supply by Wednesday this week and made ready for the intake and supply of water.
The Chairman of the Water Authority Board said that the capacity of over 500,000 gallons a day plus another 500,000 gallons being provided a day by TSG – the company operating the brackish water supply from The Valley well field – would be enough to supply the entire. “With our clientele base of just a little under 2,000, our service will be more than adequate,” he observed. “I believe that once we reach to 4,800 [customers], our previous mark, it is no question that we will have to increase our supply. Once we see the clientele base moving up, within three months we can have an additional train installed and ready to go.”
Mr. Richardson continued: “One of the thoughts we have in the embryonic stages involves Island Harbour where we may install a plant to control that part of the island. As you know, the rainfall in Anguilla is very low and so we have to think futuristically. Having a plant in that area would take care of that part of the island. It would be a smaller plant, producing 250,000 gallons a day in the first instance –moving to 500,000 as the population grows. So we don’t want to put everything in Crocus Bay. The building at Crocus Bay is such that we can have another train there but, should something happen in Crocus Bay, we need to have another source in another area; so having a train at island Harbour would help to alleviate some of the issues.”
The desalinated water in Anguilla is being provided by Caribbean Water Treatment Limited of Antigua, whose CEO is Mr. Mario Brento.
Meanwhile, as final arrangements are being made to commission the water desalination plant, a visiting team is assessing the estimated levels of brackish water in The Valley well field. It is understood that there are some fifteen or sixteen wells in that area, but about twelve of them may be in use.
