The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

 THE Water and Sewerage Corporation has announced it will execute a $2.7m contract for two one million gallon tanks and an additional $525,000 for related support work in view of water supply interruptions at Central Eleuthera.

 WSC said customers on the island experienced a major mechanical failure at their Naval Base Desalination Plant on Monday evening.

 The failure necessitated the procurement and delivery of replacement parts from the United States.

 Those parts were flown into Eleuthera early yesterday morning, and a team was on site working to complete the repairs and resume water production that afternoon.

  “The corporation anticipates that we will resume water supply into the Central Eleuthera distribution system around 2pm this afternoon (yesterday). However, customers in the upper elevations and those at the extreme ends of the system will continue to experience lower than normal water pressure until the system is fully re-pressurized later this afternoon (yesterday),” WSC said.

 The corporation apologised to all of its customers for any and all inconvenience caused and are working strategically to prevent a re-occurrence in the future.

“Our strategic efforts will include the corporation executing a contract for a new 1,000,000 imperial gallon storage tank at our Naval Base Pumping Station and another 1,000,000 imperial gallon storage tank at our Bogue Pumping Station in the next few days. The total contract value for these tanks is $2,756,000 and a further $525,000 in related support works will be executed.

“These tanks will increase the available water in storage that can be utilised to supply customers while major mechanical issues are addressed, thereby reducing the frequency of water supply interruptions. Separately, the Corporation is also working closely with our desalination contractor who has plants at Waterford, Tarpum Bay, Naval Bay and Bogue, Eleuthera to identify all major mechanical failure risk components and to ensure that critical spares are readily available on island and adequate redundancies are in place.”