The water infrastructure is in serious need of repairs, according to Minister of Infrastructure, Haydn Hughes. Consequently, consumers are complaining that they are without running water on a daily basis.
“There has always been an issue with water,” Minister Hughes said at the government press briefing on Monday, May 16.
“There needs to be a $20 million capital injection in the Water Corporation to improve and rebuild the network. But how do we finance it? How do we develop it?”
Mr Hughes indicated that the water infrastructure continues to suffer from a significant amount of water-leakage. He observed: “Over 60% of the water that we produce is leaked into the ground, and that is a significant amount. We have a lot of leaks.”
Mr Hughes noted that the Water Corporation is constantly trying to “fix” leaks as they develop which, unfortunately, means that the water supply to the affected areas would have to be turned off to accommodate the repairs, thus impacting consumers in those regions.
“Every day that you drive on the roads in Anguilla, you will see the hard-working men of the Water Corporation fixing leaks. When you have to fix a leak, you have to shut off the water in that particular area. As soon as you patch a leak in one area, the pressure builds and bursts in another area. There are really lots of leaks happening every day.
“There are a lot of pinhole leaks [along the infrastructure] as well, so there are a lot of problems that we [Government) have inherited – including the outstanding bill from the Water Corporation to ANGLEC which is way in excess of $10 million. There are lots of issues that cannot be fixed in a day, but we are working every day to see what we can do with the hand that has been dealt to us, and that is where we are.
“Yes, the [water] issues are with maintenance, but there is a need to start from scratch and rebuild the entire network throughout the island. That is a significant investment…and it needs to be done.”
Minister Hughes also noted that there are many people who have applied for water and cannot be connected to the network at this time – about 2,000 people down from our peak connections.
“That tells us how much revenue the Water Corporation could derive if those people could get onto the network. These are the issues and challenges that we have, but the team at the Water Corporation is working every day to see what they are can do – given the physical, fiscal, and product constraints that they have,” Mr. Hughes said.
