St. George’s, March 7, 2011 – Grenada’s Public Utilities Minister has offered several proposals he says are necessary for the proper management of the nation’s limited water resource.
Joseph Gilbert, who is also Minister of Works and Physical Development, described water as life. The water scarcity experienced during the 2009/2010 drought that affected Grenada and other Caribbean countries was a “wake up’’ call, he said.
“Persons, at long last, began to appreciate that potable water is a finite resource. They began to take the issue of water conservation much more seriously, and for once, gave water the attention it rightly deserves,’’ Minister Gilbert said in an address at the recent official commissioning of the Southern Grenada Water Supply Project.
The ceremony was attended by other government officials, including Prime Minister Tillman Thomas and Finance Minister Nazim Burke, as well as by representatives of the National Water and Sewage Authority (NAWASA) and the European Development Fund (EDF).
The project, which employed dozens of Grenadians, was undertaken by NAWASA with the aim of increasing the quality and quantity of the water supply. The initiative was financed by the EDF.
Among the lessons of the drought of a year ago, said Mr. Gilbert, “was the recognition that an effective and sustained process of adaptation to climate change in the water sector cannot be considered as the sole responsibility of government; but rather, it requires broad and genuine social participation,’’ involving multiple partners.
“That social participation includes social responsibility; that is, willingness on the part of the populace to conserve water and to refrain from practices that destroy our water-bearing ecosystem,’’ Hon. Gilbert said. “It includes a willingness to reduce pollution of our rivers and streams. In other words, water security requires a coordinated approach involving multiple stakeholders in various sectors.’’
The minister warned that the newly completed NAWASA-EDF project is not a solution to all the country’s water problems.
“Let us not go away with the perception that, with the completion of this Southern Grenada Water Supply Project, all our problems in the water sector would be immediately resolved,’’ he stressed. “That was never the expected outcome of this project. We have much work to do to develop the water sector in Grenada along a path that addresses such key policy issues as water resource ownership, management, treatment and distribution.’’
He said ongoing challenges in the water sector call for planning ahead and taking aggressive measures to “develop and implement a national policy that speaks to an integrated approach for management of our scarce water resource.’’
Mr. Gilbert has proposed encouragement of rain water harvesting initiatives, and legislation that would require all new buildings over a certain size, as part of their design, to have “adequate rain water catchment and storage facilities before approval to construct is granted by the Physical Planning Authority.’’
In order to access EDF funding for the project, NAWASA was asked to institute tariff reform. Minister Gilbert said the reform, and the project’s completion, would help NAWASA to continue meeting its mandate of affordable and accessible water to all Grenadians.
“That tariff reform,’’ he argued, “provided some degree of financial stability to NAWASA’s operations while, at the same time, ensuring that potable pipe-borne water continues to be one of the most affordable commodities provided by any public utility in the country.’’
The Public Utilities Minister added that “sustainable operation on the part of NAWASA means, among other things, that NAWASA must be able to provide safe potable water in sufficient quantity and quality, and at such reasonable price, so as to be able to maintain and upgrade their infrastructure – much of which has outlived their useful design life.’’