Over 10,000 to benefit from water project on west coast

The pipes and fittings were handed over on Wednesday
The pipes and fittings were handed over on Wednesday

Over 10,000 residents on the west coast of Dominica are expected to benefit from a multi-million dollar water project which forms part of Component 1 of a Disaster Vulnerability Reduction Project (DVRP) funded by the World Bank.

On Wednesday pipes and fittings, worth $1.7-million for the West Coast Water Storage Tanks Project were officially handed over to the Ministry of Housing, Lands and Water Resource Management by the Ministry of Health.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health, Helen Royer, said the overall project will directly benefit 20 communities along the west coast, with a total of 10,819 residents.

“On a national level the beneficiaries account for 15 percent of the population,” she noted, during the handing over ceremony.

She explained that the project will see the construction of eight water storage tanks and the supply lines within a number of communities on the west coast.

“The tanks’ capacity range from 30,000 to 100,000 gallons,” Royer stated, adding that the land for constructing the tanks has already been purchased.

Meanwhile Chief Engineer at DOWASCO, Magnus Williams, said the company’s aim was to provide between 24 and 48 hours of reserve storage on each water system but on many of its systems, that target has not been met.

“The West Coast Water Supply project involves, not only construction of new intakes, treatment plants and primary supply and transmission lines which were undertaken via funding from the European Union, but also the construction of nine storage tanks,” he said. “Unfortunately construction of these tanks has been delayed due to a lack of funding, with the exception of the Grand Savanne storage tank, financed directly by the government of Dominica. Funding is, however, now available through the World Bank under the DVRP to finally allow the construction of the eight remaining tanks in Morne Rachet, Colihaut, Bioche, Picard, Glanvillia, Savanne Paille and Cottage.”

He said construction of the tanks would be in vain without the associated pipe network to transfer the water from the main transmission line running alongside the EO Leblanc Highway to the tanks and then take water to deliver to customers.

“These pipes and associated fittings have been procured under the DVRP in advance of the construction and installation works and are stored at this Jimmit facility in anticipation of the award of contracts for works,” Williams said.

The Disaster Vulnerability Reduction Project (DVRP) is worth $38-million.

Copyright 2012 Dominica News Online, DURAVISION INC. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or distributed.

Disclaimer: The comments posted do not necessarily reflect the views of DominicaNewsOnline.com and its parent company or any individual staff member. All comments are posted subject to approval by DominicaNewsOnline.com. We never censor based on political or ideological points of view, but we do try to maintain a sensible balance between free speech and responsible moderating.

We will delete comments that:

  • contain any material which violates or infringes the rights of any person, are defamatory or harassing or are purely ad hominem attacks
  • a reasonable person would consider abusive or profane
  • contain material which violates or encourages others to violate any applicable law
  • promote prejudice or prejudicial hatred of any kind
  • refer to people arrested or charged with a crime as though they had been found guilty
  • contain links to "chain letters", pornographic or obscene movies or graphic images
  • are off-topic and/or excessively long

See our full comment/user policy/agreement.

8 Comments

  1. Caribbean National
    September 24, 2016

    Dominica is in a better state than Barbados right now. BWA water systems are in hay wire. Residents have no water for months in certain areas.

  2. Preacher
    September 23, 2016

    Where are the critics ?
    Are they still asleep ?
    Just to inform them Salisbury is included
    That’s the fairness of labour
    Even the pal rep is included

  3. Roseau River
    September 22, 2016

    Positive news. Hopefully the next report on this matter will be the tanks being completed and pipes installed successfully.

  4. Lol
    September 22, 2016

    Wesleyan Rome was not built in a day

  5. UDOHREADYET
    September 22, 2016

    This is an excellent step forward!!!
    hopefully its well thought out in that they are considering securing the areas from general public access where the water is stored.

  6. Pondera
    September 22, 2016

    Excellent work. Projects like this is at the core of human development.

  7. Weslyian
    September 22, 2016

    what’s the issue with Wesley,Marigot,Woodfordhill and Calishbsie Water System..

    since Ericka the main pipes from the intake have been reduced and DOWASCO has yet to commence any work on resorting the required capacity for the system..so every time a drizzle comes customers suffer and DOWASCO is extremely slow in doing anything, the crews have to travel from Portsmouth to work on the system, shows a lack of foresight on DOWASCO part, they take nothing seriously…

    that water system feeds the Melville Hall Airport and the health sheds in wesley and marigot….DOWASCO has a poor policy towards water on the island period, their standards and innovation are way below par…but it’s dominica they haven’t anything to be proud of but mediocre service….that’s why the will continue to be dismal and be the poorest and slowest economy in the region..bunch of dumb folks…

    • Preacher
      September 23, 2016

      Stop complaining and wait
      Rome was not built in a day
      At least you still have water

Post a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

:) :-D :wink: :( 8-O :lol: :-| :cry: 8) :-? :-P :-x :?: :oops: :twisted: :mrgreen: more »

 characters available