Government is Committed to Resolving the Water Issue within the Federation
Basseterre, St. Kitts, October 5, 2022 – Prime Minister the Hon. Dr. Terrance Drew pledged his administration’s commitment to resolving the water situation affecting the St. Peter’s area and other communities in St. Kitts and Nevis yesterday, Tuesday 4th October.
The community of St. Peter’s had been without water for three (3) days following an issue with the pump. The Water Department team within the Ministry of Public Infrastructure worked vigorously to resolve the issue that created the interruption of water supply throughout the community. The team worked late into the night on Saturday and throughout the day on Sunday and Monday to repair the pump. By 6:00 pm Monday 3rd October 2022, the pump was repaired, and water was restored. However, due to an air blockage (air in the pipe preventing the free flow of water), the entire community was not able to receive their water supply until the following day.
By Tuesday morning (October 4, 2022), water was restored to up to eight percent (80%) of consumers in the St. Peter’s community, and work was still ongoing to ensure the remaining residents could have access to potable water by the end of the day.
The Prime Minister visited the well site Tuesday morning to witness the men of the Water Department at work. They explained the issue with the pump and the air blockage and demonstrated the process of listening to the water flow to ensure that it was fully restored.
In a brief interview The Prime Minister Hon. Dr. Terrance Drew stated, “What I would like to say to the people of the environs of St. Peter’s is that we are committed to making sure that this is resolved, and I want to say that the Honourable Konris Maynard [Minister with responsibility for Public Infrastructure] is not here this morning because he is away on national duty but had he been [in St. Kitts] he would have been here as well, and of course he has given his commitment, as the PS (Permanent Secretary) mentioned, to make sure that we resolve the water situation not just in St. Peter’s but we want to resolve it throughout the whole of St. Kitts and Nevis”.
The Prime Minister said he was also pleased to know that a water truck was busy making its rounds “to make sure that the residents have access to potable water and so I want to thank everyone who has been involved and we’ll keep a close eye on the situation, and we’ll keep pushing towards the restoration of water to the people of St. Peter’s.”
The Hon. Prime Minister extended his personal appreciation to the hard-working staff of the Water Services Department for their prompt and efficient response to the problem.
“I want to thank the guys who are working because I think they are the real foundation in making sure that this issue is resolved. I know the guys have been working extremely hard and sometimes we don’t recognize how hard they are working. We just know that the water is there, and I want us to understand that it just doesn’t automatically get there. There are people who are working hard and when it goes, I think that really brings to bear how important these guys are in making sure that we have water,” said Prime Minister Dr. Drew.
The Prime Minister expressed apologies to the community of St. Peter’s for the interruption in water supply and reaffirmed the government’s commitment to ensuring the water issue within the Federation is resolved.