The Dominica Water and Sewage Company Ltd (DOWASCO), in collaboration with the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) and the Ministry of Health, has begun work on Dominica’s first water safety plan.
On Thursday, a consultation was held to discuss the plan and General Manager at DOWASCO, Bernard Ettinoffe, stated that it will cover the management of water resources directly from catchment areas, in order to provide suitable potable water.
“It is something that will seek to govern how we manage our water resources, from the catchment areas—and when I speak of catchment areas, I’m not just talking about the intakes across the rivers, but I’m talking about the wider catchment areas, several acres of land around those rivers—how we manage those things to ensure that we provide water that is suitable for consumption to our people,” Ettinoffe articulated.
These practices will ensure that the public is on a sustainable path to development, and will help in avoiding unnecessary health risks, he noted.
Representative of the Environmental Health and Sustainable Development Department of CARPHA, Lydon Robertson, highlighted the importance of water safety planning in society.
“Water is essential for life. However, in any supply system, management of public health risk is necessary to reduce negative health impacts,” he explained. “Hence, water safety planning is a key ingredient in the recipe that ensures safe drinking water is supplied to the public, by the water utility.”
Robertson described water safety planning as “a critical tool to reduce risk to human health, as a result of contaminated water supplies. It is based on a Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point Approach… the water supplies are managed from the water shed to the final consumer.”
He commented that plan will involve CARPHA representatives working closely and networking with a number of partner agencies. Field visits, literature reviews, and assessments of all components of the water system will also be required.
The plan, he stated, will be “robust,” and tailored to local and national needs.
Great stuff