New Measures In Place Due To Water Shortage
The Ministry of Public Works, in consultation with the Bermuda Water Truckers Association [BWTA], said they “determined that, due to the extremely dry weather conditions, new measures must be put in place to increase the quantity of potable water available to water truckers.”
“There remains a large portion of the community who are solely reliant upon trucked water and are now in critical need of water,” said a spokesperson for the Ministry of Public Works.
“This backlog has resulted in residents experiencing long delays for a single load of water. The vast majority of the island depends on trucked water and in times of extreme dry weather this need increases dramatically.”
“To assist those residents who rely solely on trucked water, the Ministry of Public Works will be extending the access hours of the North Shore Water Truckers Outlet, the Frog Lane Water Truckers Outlet and the Port Royal Truckers Outlet beginning on Monday, June 12, in an attempt to assist the water truckers in servicing the increasing number of residents that are in desperate need of water.
“In order for the Ministry to achieve this, a majority of the Government’s piped customers will be shut off for approximately a week at a time to allow a greater supply for truckers.
“The majority of piped customers across the island have had access to water on demand, and will continue to have this ability during the periods that the piped service is on. Piped customers are encouraged to fill their tanks leading up to these outage periods and monitor their water levels throughout them.
“This restriction of piped water service will not be applied to essential customers such as the King Edward Memorial VII Hospital, Cedar Park and Mary Victoria estates, who are solely reliant on the piped water supply.
“The Ministry will monitor the situation and repeat these measures if and when it is necessary until this severe dry weather period subsides.
“The schedule of piped water supply service will be communicated through press releases and also be posted on the Government Portal. The Government piped water customers will be given credit for the monthly fee charged during this time of restricted access.
“The Ministry of Public Works would like to repeat its previous request to the public to make all efforts to conserve water during this time. Residents should only order water as and when they need it.
“Residents should also monitor tank levels regularly to determine if and when they will require water. Water level indicators should also be considered, especially for customers who find it difficult to remove tank covers.
“This will ensure that water can be monitored, ordered and received before running out.
“The following conservation measures are very effective:
- Check your water level regularly and order before your tank is empty
- Do not order more water than is necessary
- Carefully control the flow of piped water into your tank to avoid overfilling
- Check and quickly repair leaking faucets, toilets, and water appliances
- Minimize the number of times you flush the toilet
- Use well water for toilet flushing and car washing
- Take quick showers, not full baths
- Use a basin of water at a time instead of letting a tap run for brushing teeth and shaving
- Do not let water overflow or run after use
- Minimize use of washing machines and dishwashers
- Wash full laundry loads or set the washer to appropriate load size
- Reduce the watering of lawns and outdoor plants and filling pools
“The Water and Sewage Section of the Ministry of Public Works are continuing to modify and monitor their plant to produce as much water as possible, as well as monitor their distribution systems to minimize system losses [leaks].
“The Ministry of Public Works and the Bermuda Water Truckers Association would like to thank the public for their cooperation and pledge to meet the needs of our community.”
Is Dockyard and the AC community doing their part in conserving water? I have heard stories of where they get first access to the water over the locals. Have we asked them to conserve their water as well?
the post is for everyone, not just you. remember bro, its not all about you.
“I’ve heard stories..” so no credible information at all, just spreading rumors.
Yup, typical of PLPers. I heard someone on Radio yesterday say that they “heard” the OBA is deleting PLP voters off the registry because they could not find their name on the website!
Agreed!
Exactly that, they are ‘stories’ and you are perpetuating them.
When in doubt blame the AC! Water is like gold up there. From day one water has been conserved
I am guessing that they use water like any other business here does, and that visitors to the AC Village are only using toilets, and the AC Village is for all, including locals.
The AC teams have also all sponsored initiatives on the island to support renewable energy. Land Rover BAR have supported the solar panels that are at now up at the museum in Dockyard. Groupama have been using the new Renault Twinzy’s. I’m sure one of the teams is also supporting that cool looking yacht that is on island campaigning about using water more efficiently.
So in summary, AC is not ruining your water use, if anything they are encouraging clean energy and efficiency on the island.
AC is also campaigning for people to bring multiple use water bottles to the village and to use water stations there, rather than using single use water bottles which are not environmentally friendly.
Keep an eye on the coverage on the news for all of the initiatives that AC is bringing. There’s often something mentioned each week.
Just to put a little perspective on that , and it ought to be mentioned that because the AC people are all committed to ‘green and renewable , etc’ their impact probably isn’t as bad as one might first believe.
My worry is the impact that the cruise ships are having on our underground supply . A supply that is very finite and once it becomes stressed and salt water migrates back into the lenses we’re in deep trouble .
From what I understand the cruise ships are not allowed to use their RO/desalinization plants when they are in port and as soon as they arrive they hook into the west end piped well water lines.
If you have 2 mega ships in berth at once that’s potentially 10,000 people who have no idea of water conservancy instantly drawing off of our limited underground supply .
That is the equivalent of 2500 four person homes instantly popping up on top of the water lens and sucking constantly.
A pretty scary scenario if you ask me.
The Cruise ships, businesses, homes, etc in Dockyard get water from the reverse osmosis plant in Dockyard (have done for many years) this plant is financed through rent and docking fees. They do not impact the general supply throughout the island. It is my understanding that the output from this plant has been increased slightly to cope with the needs at AC.
You heard stories? For real?! Well we’ll get right on that.
And Belco saying we might have power outages during this summer!!!!!!!!!!
This O.B.A. Government is making us into a Third World country.
Hurry up and call de election.
plp beat them to that ya donkey. In 14 years you turned us into one big charity case and chased away most of the charitable people!
You did it in 5.
Get yourself a rum fool
They use watlington water – there is no need for access. The stories (even you even heard them – sounds like you are just stirring) are false.
PLP trolls in full swing.
The water trucks are refusing to bring water to St. George’s because it is “too far” and they do not have access to BLDC’s water. How is the Government dealing with this?
So the water trucks are the new taxis then…
Lol
*gulp*
Government water subscribers like myself have already been shut off
for days at a time in the last 2 months. But they continue to Bill the Monthly rental fee.
“Disgusted senior”
Just an outsider who was wondering about the possibility of desalination of seawater. Has it been studied recently. One would think that the technology has improved in recent years and with the costs of wind and solar power increasingly more affordable, perhaps this has become more viable.
BTW, WE DO HAVE RO OF SEA WATER ON ISLAND….
We have reverse os plants, that’s where the piped water comes from.
The people that blame the cruise ships , AC, and next it will be the Hotels make me CRAZY, it’s the same lot that are screaming for employment, we need people to generate revenue and create jobs, how dumb are you lot. Blame both governments for not creating more desalination plants.
If you couldn’t figure out that my comment about the impact of cruise ships was an ‘awareness point’ and not a ‘blame point’ , well sorry . When people are made aware of this they find it pretty astounding the impact it has on our limited water supply .
How many RO plants could we get for $800M?
Good place to start would be getting the government water plant working 100%
Government piped water to Ham Parish has been turned OFF for weeks allegedly due to a leak in the pipe. No-one seems capable of fixing it. So, please don’t tell us to conserve water, you’re doing it for us. Excuse after excuse is disgraceful.
Dockyard recently upgraded their RO plant to 500 000 gallons a day… Plenty of water up there.
It does however blow my mind that all sorts of home owners have the WW pipe going right past their houses but refuse to hook their house up to it – and then complain when they can’t get a water truck.
Pay the hook up charge or don’t complain. At current rates the hookup charge will be paid back in 4-5 trucked loads if you don’t count the inconvenience. yes you will have to pay a monthly minimum but its less than you pay for your cable, your internet or your cellphone or even a tank of gas for your car.
Money well spent!!!