COMMENTARY: Developing Dominica’s HUGE water resource

It was only last week that Prime Minister Skerrit, addressing an OECS Conference in Dominica, spoke at length on utilizing Dominica’s substantial water resource more effectively within the Union and even at the CARICOM level.

While Dominica was always willing and able to supply that key commodity (the Nature Isle is especially blessed in that area!), the problem was often
1. securing an appropriate vessel for transportation in BULK (much cheaper than in plastic bottles…) and
2. The availability of adequate storage facilities in the RECEIVING country.

Clearly there is need to resolve these particular impediments to facilitate shipments of large shipments of water, especially in emergency situations of which the Prime minister gave recent examples. Getting the flow of water from our water-rich country to the water-poorer ones in our region (as a start…) is overdue . It is a resource that holds tremendous revenue potential for Dominica.

By way of background, we can start with this question: what costs more, water or oil? The answer is well known. Which has more value? The answer becomes… well… not so clear.

An objective look at the relative use of water and oil, however, should establish beyond a shadow of doubt that water has by far the greater value. Not only is it required for the very existence of life, but, even more than that, it is required and necessary in many basic areas of production, sanitation, is an ingredient of many key materials and products (both modern and traditional) etc, etc.

So why is water so cheap? Very simple: because it was in the past perceived to be generally and “freely” available. Most countries, most communities, usually had it within walking (or riding or driving…) distance. But not so these days! All over the world, inadequate supply of quality water is becoming a serious problem, as regularly cautioned by various U.N. agencies. As far away as Africa and India and as nearby as Antigua, Barbados, St. Maarten, Trinidad and others, enough water for growing populations remains a nagging issue.

Dominica, however, has water (from its ‘365’ rivers) in abundance. It is a key resource! It is not impossible that with the right management of this asset, water for Dominica could become what oil is for Saudi Arabia!

To achieve this, however, a government-led, innovative, dynamic, and well planned strategy is required. And it must not be only a government ‘planning’ effort. Neither must it be a feasibility study done by the usual gang of ‘foreign experts’. The interests of large developed countries are not necessarily our own, and in this particular project, it most definitely is not, except perhaps for some of the technical and funding components. And it cannot be left for the Dominica private-sector which, perhaps because of limited capital availability, has failed to go beyond anything but small-scale bottling plants.

Dominica currently exports VERY LITTLE water precisely because this is limited to BOTTLED WATER. We will never be able to compete with this type of water product since almost every other Caribbean country is in the same business with a much larger local (and visitor market) so they have the advantage of economies of scale. The product is inferior to Dominica’s product but is invariably cheaper.

Our competitive edge would be in BULK supply. We need to start thinking of a shipping approach using water tankers (like for oil) to ship in as a large commodity. That would eliminate for Dominica the huge PACKAGING costs (plastic bottles, labels, cartons, etc, which all have to be imported) that make bottled water shipping to other Caribbean islands simply uncompetitive.

I would point out ANOTHER marketing opportunity if we seriously develop the bulk water business. It could be available for cruise ships not only in Dominica but for OTHER islands like Guadeloupe and Martinique, St Maarten and Barbados which receive significantly more cruise ship visits than Dominica. Storage tanks in these islands could receive the bulk water shipments to later supply cruise ships at their convenience. It is a doable project albeit an ambitious one. Keeping in mind the increasing demand and value of quality drinking water, post-Erika GRANT funding from the UN Development Program (UNDP) and the E.U. (& CARICOM itself) should be pursued. The project is the type of new millennium thinking that small islands need to pro-actively pursue for a genuinely sustainable future.

That (and even the possibilities of an undersea water pipeline to the afore-mentioned countries) would be for the long term. In the relative short term, it is very likely that a country like Trinidad with acute water problems could be interested in paying a reasonable price for a GUARANTEED regular supply of bulk water from Dominica. It would certainly help Trinidad’s citizens out of an increasingly intolerable supply situation, further compounded by periodic incidents of major flooding or Climate Change generally. Instead of Trinidad setting up yet another fowl-tasting salt water desalination plant, new Prime Minister Rowley could announce this innovative way resolving this particular longstanding headache: The creation of a special collaborative CARICOM approach (Trinidad-Dominica) whereby Trinidad assists a small LDC CARICOM partner (Dominica) with the financial and technical resources (and that of various UN development institutions) that would build the appropriate infrastructure referred to earlier that would finally allow the large-scale extraction and storage of that huge Dominican water resource – allowing for regular export of BULK shipments to Trinidad and other CARICOM countries!

And if government needs to look at a richer (so more reliable) water market beyond CARICOM we could start by discussing with Australia (a fellow Commonwealth country) on the possibilities of shipping Dominica’s quality drinking water to that country You quickly ask, Isn’t it too far to be feasible? Wouldn’t the freight costs alone be prohibitive? And doesn’t Australia have ‘state-of-the-art’ desalination plants that can address their drinking water needs? Well, consider this: on the evidence of a visit to that country 10 years ago, I personally witnessed their citizens (and their media’s) often expressed disgust with the taste of much of their drinking water! There were also notable – and clearly enforced – restrictions on water usage (down to the mandatory use of “half-toilets”!!!), and other rigid regulations to help stem their rapidly drying-up RIVERS. From periodic reports in the news, the overall water supply situation in Australia has, not surprisingly, gotten worse! Could a joint Australia-Dominica approach to the water issues be worthy of some discussion? The answer would seem obvious…

Dominica is overdue, especially in this post-Erika era, to start to develop a resource that may turn out even more valuable than geo-thermal.