The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A former minister yesterday slammed a report blaming changes to the Blue Hills water plant contract for an increase in ‘red water’ as “a frivolous excuse” for the current government’s failure to address the real problem.

Phenton Neymour, minister of state for the environment under the former Ingraham administration, said the root cause of the ‘red water’ problems plaguing the Water & Sewerage Corporation’s 50,000-plus New Providence customers were the old, rusting lined pipes installed over 30 years ago.

Calling on the current government and Board to continue replacing these pipes, Mr Neymour accused departing Corporation chairman, Bradley Roberts, of wasting $50,000 worth of taxpayers’ money to produce a report that provided answers already known.

Pointing out that the pipes responsible for the present difficulties had been installed more than 30 years ago, during the days of the UBP and Pindling administrations, Mr Neymour told Tribune Business: “The solution to the red water is to simply replace the pipes.

“That has been determined as the solution some 30 years ago. That was the solution when I returned home as an engineer, and my job as a Water & Sewerage Corporation engineer was to begin that replacement.”

The former minister said the Corporation now used PVC or lined pipes that did not suffer from the same problems.

“Mr Roberts is referring to something undertaken many years ago,” Mr Neymour added, “which, one, demonstrates his ignorance of the water industry.

“He is making frivolous excuses for a ‘do nothing’ approach to rusty water. He spent $50,000 to get consultants to tell him what we have known for 30 years. That’s a frivolous excuse for him not replacing water mains. It’s not a water quality issue.”

Mr Neymour said the current administration had to-date replaced “less than 10 per cent” of the water pipes repaired during the former Ingraham administration.

The ex-minister said he had presided over “the greatest expansion” of Water & Sewerage Corporation infrastructure ever seen over a five-year period, with some 125 miles of water pipes laid in New Providence.

The then-government also agreed the $83 million Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) project that will replace up to 25,000 water connections and tackle New Providence’s chronic non-revenue water issues, plus oversaw the 67 per cent expansion to the Blue Hills reverse osmosis plant that ended the 35-year barging of water from Andros.

“He has done nothing,” Mr Neymour said of Mr Roberts. 
“The solution to red water is to replace the pipes.”

Tribune Business previously revealed how a consultant’s report for the Water & Sewerage Corporation had alleged that BISX-listed Consolidated Water gained “significant” financial benefits after a change to its Blue Hills water plant contract allowed it to supply poorer quality water.

The report alleged that the lower quality supply from Blue Hills, Nassau’s largest reverse osmosis plant, “is certainly a primary reason” for the increase in red water complaints by customers.

The report, by Ian Watson of Tampa-based RosTek Associates, found that the contract to facilitate the Blue Hills plant’s 2011 expansion, from 6 million gallons of water per day to 10 million gallons, had resulted in the Water & Sewerage Corporation incurring “high” ‘red water ‘mitigation costs.

The RosTek report said: “There are no penalties, financial or otherwise, included in the contract language for failure to meet the minimum water quality requirements.

“For example, the finished water LSI is required to be positive at all times for the original plant. Our preliminary evaluation of the water quality data indicates that, for the most part, this requirement has not been met, and it is our belief that this condition has led directly to the red water problems that have been plaguing Water & Sewerage Corporation for many years.

“The cost of mitigation to Water & Sewerage Corporation has been high, both in remediation measures such as the supply and maintenance of filters for the consumers, but also in staff time, and water lost during the flushing operations.

“Other examples of water quality parameters that have not been met from time to time are the finished water chlorine residual, and the chloride content of the finished water.”