Some five million dollars is being spent on equipment to meet all of Anguilla’s needs for a dependable system of running water. The well-needed supply will not only be for the island’s population, but such large consumers as hotels some of which have already indicated their interest in coming on the system.
It is a big initiative of the Water Corporation of Anguilla whose hard-working Chairman is Mr. Christopher Richardson. The water will be supplied from the reverse osmosis plant at Crocus Bay, now being substantially upgraded by – the newly-contracted supplier, Seven Seas. There is also the involvement of TSG with respect to the brackish water production from The Valley well field.
The Anguillian met several days ago with Mr. Christopher Richardson, Mr. Hubert Lopez, former Consultant with the Water Corporation, and Mr. Eric Borgdorff, Seven Seas Water Field Services Operations Manager. Also present were Mr. Clement Riouard, the local Construction Manager; Mr. Coyle Richardson, the Lead Operator; and Mr.Derick Sylvester of St. Maarten.
“What we are looking at is the expansion that is taking place,” Mr. Richardson told the newspaper. “As you know, on the 4th of October this year, Seven Seas took over being the vendors for the Water Corporation of Anguilla. They have a three-month period in which to provide us with 750,000 US gallons per day so we are moving from 500,000 gallons to that figure. We have two additional trains. Each train carries 150,000 gallons so that will give us the 250,000 gallons extra.
“There should be two more trains which will also give us another 250,000 gallons (bringing the total to 1,000,000 gallons). So any moment that we need to have more water, after having that 750,000 gallons, we will just call on Seven Seas to increase production so it just wouldn’t take us three to six months. It would be over a short period of time when they can hit the switch and we can have the additional water.
Mr. Richardson disclosed that the upgraded reverse osmosis plant should be re-commissioned in January 2019 with 750,000 gallons of desalinated water available for distribution. “Once we go up to 1,000,000 gallons, there is no question that additional storage has to be in place,” he explained. “Once we move to 1,000,000 gallons, we have T.S.G which provides the brackish water [from The Valley well field]. They are providing something like 400,000 gallons per day. Because of the concerns we are having with the well field, at the moment, we are not certain that there will be any increase in their production. Hence, we have to rely now on the sea water reverse osmosis plant to carry most of the production of our water.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Borgdorff, Seven Seas’ Operations Manager in Anguilla, said the upgrading work at the reverse osmosis plant is proceeding well. “Everything is good, according to schedule,” he commented. “We have received a lot of material to last three weeks. We are going to double the capacity of the actual plant.”
A further report on the reverse osmosis plant and the aim to supply Anguilla with a substantially increased and reliable system of running water, will be given in the next issue of The Anguillian newspaper on January 4, 2019.
