Consultant To Assess Water Distribution System

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Melissa Edwards/BVI Platinum News

(PLTM) - An assessment of the water distribution system of the BVI is being conducted to aid in the design of a new water distribution network.

A consultant has been hired at a cost of $375,000 and began work yesterday, March 20. Their work is being funded by the $65 million Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Loan from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB).

Director of Projects in the Ministry of Finance’s Projects Unit, Dr. Drexel Glasgow in an interview with BVI Platinum News related that the consultant has been hired to undertake several tasks over a 24-month period.

“In the loan, there’s a component of the loan that focuses on not the whole programme, but at least supplementing Government’s programme to replace the water meters,” he explained.

“This particular consultant would go through with the Water and Sewage Department, Ministry of Communications and Works, to help in that design and do the supervision of the works,” he further related.

Touching on their role as it relates to the water distribution network, he said, “We have also included in this person’s Terms of Reference, a provision whereby they will do an audit or assessment of the current water distribution needs and assist with the conceptual design of the system.”

The consultant’s work will stretch across the BVI and is not limited to Tortola.

The hiring of this consultant was among several of the contracts signed last month under the CDB loan Programme.

A total of $1,424,683 in contracts were signed for the hiring of the water consultant, a project engineer, financial audit services and consultancy services on roads, slopes and coastal defenses.

The issue of a poor water distribution system in the BVI, particularly on Tortola, has been a long standing issue with constant outcries from the people, especially in District Three.

Last September, the previous Government allocated some $3.5 million to improve water distribution on Tortola.

The money was expected to be spent on the development of a new pump station at Long Trench, upgrades to the Diamond Estate and Chalwell Estate pump stations, and works to the waterlines across Tortola.

The then Minister of Communications and Works, Mark Vanterpool had stated that the problem of inadequate water supply was expected to be remedied by February 2019.

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