BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - Barbados may be looking outside its shores for assistance in dealing with the severe water shortage affecting the country.

 

It has been reported that the island has already ordered a shipment of fresh water from Suriname.

 

The shipment of a maximum of 2 million litres of surface water in a flextank is expected to leave Suriname around November 25 and arrive in Barbados four to five days later.

 

Amazone Resources’ Chief Executive Officer Auke Piek broke the news on Tuesday while speaking on the sidelines of the Caribbean Water and Wastewater Association (CWWA) Conference and Exhibition being held at the Hyatt Regency in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad.

 

“We would like to have the launch of the flexbag on November 21 or 22 and after that, it will be sent to Barbados with drinkable surface water from the rivers. The journey should take four to five days, using a tugboat to pull the floating flexbag/flextank … We will test, through our trial, how the water behaves during transportation,” Piek told members of the media. However, he said he did not know what Barbados would do with the large shipment of water, as it was only a “test run.”

 

Piek acknowledged that following a sustained period of drought in Barbados, “there was an urgent need for fresh water, both for agricultural and industry but also for human beings.”

 

However, Barbados’ two top water management officials have denied approving any such move.

 

While not ruling out a potential move in the future, both Minister of Water Resource Management Dr. David Estwick and Barbados Water Authority (BWA) General Manager Dr. John Mwansa said they had not approved any such shipment. 

 

Caribbean 360