General Manager of the Dominica Water and Sewerage Company Limited (DOWASCO) Bernard Ettinoffe has said that the company has been proactive in addressing allegations of water contamination in its Cochrane and Carib Territory supplies ,which after extensive testing, proved to be safe in both areas.
Sometime ago, residents of Cochrane and the Carib Territory raised concern about water safety. Carib Territory residents were worried that there might have been harmful impurities such as remnants of faeces in their tap water.
“As regards to the Cochrane situation, we’ve done quite a bit of investigations and a lot of the allegations that were made were really proven to be false. We had the assistance of the police in that regard, who did their investigations, did their sampling, did their testing as well with the various labs available and I can assure you that our findings are consistent with that of the police,” the general manager said.
He suggested that the some of the complaints may have been malicious.
“That there was no real need for that kind of alarm, and it may have been malicious to some extent; whatever reason it was done I cannot say,” he said.
The general manager said that DOWASCO takes water quality concerns very seriously.
“So even when those allegations were made in Cochrane and in the Carib Territory we increased our surveillance, our testing and sampling of the water to ensure that the quality of water that we give to people is good, and to date, recent samples taken in the Carib Territory showed that the water quality was very good, in Cochrane the water quality is good… and we’re engaged in doing that throughout Dominica,” he said.
Ettinoffe said that DOWASCO has been working closely with the Environmental Health Department and other stakeholders in addressing those issues.
“ If they tested any water and there is … residue for example, they will alert us or anything they think that could go wrong with the water they will alert us to that,” Ettinoffe said.
The contamination results from the shutting off of the water and the working on the lines which get dirt in them.
And yes, I have called and complained to DWASCO as I am sure others have also. I have had dirty water coming through my faucet for a day or 2 afterwards as well as diahrrea on a steady basis.
The situation still wasn’t resolved. How can it be when the water is constantly being shut off and turned on whenever DWASCO is finished with whatever they are doing.
They need to have bypass systems when it rains hard so that service is not interupted.
@ only; if you are this convince that your water supply is more often contaminated than not then why don’t you come forward, report the issue, specify your community and have the authorities investigate with an aim at rectifying the problem. You come on here and make claims without providing specific details and my guess is you are expecting corrective action to be taken right? That’s not going to happen.
You need to come betah than dat and if u can’t then stop spreading malice
just an observation
It isn’t just Cochrane or Carib Territory that has contamination, it is in many other areas that water is contaminated for periods of time with DWASCO shutting the water off and on or flushing the lines through peoples faucets.
If Environmental Health really wants a project, they need to get on DWASCO regarding the constant shutting off of the water supply. This is a sanitation hazard that isn’t being addressed as well as an inconvenience and costly to business’ that depend on water to serve customers.
And DA wonders why the cruise ships are pulling out.
I doubt that DWASCO is pulling water samples from the right places to be analyzed. I would say that samples would come out contaminated one-third to one-half of the time from my personal experience living in a locale that wasn’t either of the above.
DWASCO needs to get its act together.