safety steps

CABINET NOTES: The Cabinet invited three officials from the Antigua Public Utilities Authority (APUA) to its meeting to discuss the issue of water provisioning to homes, businesses, institutions, and farmers. 

The General Manager, the Water Manager, and the Financial Controller came to the Cabinet prepared to answer many questions concerning the complaints by consumers of water supply issues.

i. The APUA General Manager gave the assurance that the Ffryes Beach Reverse Osmosis Plant will begin providing potable water next Friday, January 31 2025. All the works necessary to expand the plant and to connect the supply lines have been completed.

The pumps will be activated on Tuesday, 28 January 2025: One will pump the water in a northerly direction as far as St. John’s; the other will pump in a southerly direction to meet demands in Johnson’s Point, Cades Bay, Old Road, and other communities in the South.

ii. The APUA is seeking to automate the valve switching system, which now takes several hours to activate manually and hours more to re-direct water to another location.

By turning to an automated system controlled from a single location, many valves can be adjusted within minutes, the General Manager explained. The investment is significant but necessary, the APUA official declared. Cabinet agreed.

iii. The Cabinet enquired about the encouragement to conserve water by low usage and recycling where possible. Schools, for example, consume significant quantities of potable water; the Cabinet wished to encourage recycling of treated water for certain uses where potable water is not required.

iv. The APUA again repeated that the Water Division is a “loss leader”; in other words, it does not make a profit. The subsidy provided in 2024 totalled $27 million. At some point, the revenue from water is to be increased.

v. The Cabinet received a report concerning the Sembcorp Plant that is now 27 years old and that the abandoned Tango Plant is being disassembled.