WASCO and health ministry vigilant amidst drought situation

Thursday, March 4, 2010 – General Manager of WASCO John Joseph, is continuing to speak out on the current drought situation, urging the public to take heed of the water declaration. According to the WASCO official, the Authority has been monitoring the situation from September last year. He says the water supply at the John Compton Dam has dropped considerably, falling to over 13 feet below the level of the spillway, causing much concern.

As part of its water conservation measures over the past few weeks, WASCO has been rationing the water supply, and according to Mr. Joseph, the rationing may increase.

“What we have been asking people to do they should continue to do. They need to be more vigilant in terms of their use of water. Every family should actually be attempting to use less water going about their daily lives making use of what they have and make it last as long as possible. In terms of mobilizing the country, we now have to step up and work with other organizations and the government of Saint Lucia, to implement our drought plans.”

He says in the communities where people are not used to extended water shortage, it is still a challenge getting them to adopt attitudes that are in keeping with the water conservation practices.

Meantime, the Environmental Health Department of the Ministry of Health, has also expressed concern about the water situation. Wenn Gabriel says, the department will be stepping up its education and sensitization programmes to ensure safe water consumption practices during the drought.

“What you find happening within these drought situations is that people normally resort to unsafe sources of water, covered storage drums, tanks and even the use of rivers, and going back to those unsafe sources of water, for example rivers where the possibility of diseases such as schitomiosis or bilharzia exist.”

Gabriel says people need to take water storage seriously, making sure the water receptacles are tightly covered.

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