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Water woes hit residents, GEBE says its hands tied
by The Daily Herald
Posted: Aug 7, 2007 14:54 UTC
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PHILIPSBURG - The flow of water from taps slowed to a trickle in some districts on Monday, as St. Maarten residents faced the reality that not enough potable water is being produced to meet the daily demand.
Complaints about low water pressure in their taps were received Monday from residents of several districts, including the hilly areas in St. Peters and Point Blanche.
Some Cole Bay residents had a different complaint. Albert Splinter of Diamond Estate said his area had been getting water sporadically, about two hours per day, for the past three weeks. A similar complaint was received from Mahoe Tree Drive resident Heather Tackling, who said residents of her area had been getting little or no water for about two weeks.
When contacted for comment on the situation, GEBE Managing Director William Brooks said the island consumed much more water than was being produced and this had resulted in the sporadic supply of water to some districts.
He said GEBE had been receiving complaints from consumers, but there was nothing much the utilities company could do because it only distributed the water. “GEBE does not produce the water. We just distribute it. People don’t understand this because they pay their bills at GEBE and they come to us when there is a problem.”
Splinter said he had either been receiving no water at all from his taps or the pressure had been very low for the past three weeks, and when the pressure was low water flowed for a maximum of only about two hours daily. He said that when he had contacted GEBE to complain, he had been told the utility company was “having problems.”
“I know it’s not related to any pressure problem, because in the dead of the night we don’t get any water at all and sometimes in the middle of the day we get very high pressure,” a disgruntled Splinter told this newspaper. “Once I called GEBE’s Technical Department and I was told it’s a political problem.
“In most places cisterns are empty because there is not much rain. If the water was coming at a specific time of the day, then we would be able to adjust, but it’s so irregular that we don’t know when to expect the water or when it will go.”
Tackling had a similar complaint. “It’s been two weeks now since we have had water on a regular basis in Cole Bay. We get little if any water at all, sometimes a trickle, and some days nothing,” she explained.
She continued: “Over the weekend the joy of our day was to have six straight hours of water on Saturday, so we could finally do some laundry and mop the floors. Do you know what it’s like to have to get up at 4:30 in the morning to check if there is water so that you can take a shower before you go to work? This is ridiculous. Are we living in a third world country? Why is it that our government cannot even supply its people with the basic necessities?
“We have children who will start school next week, and if this is not fixed, will they too have to get up at 4:30 in order to shower before school, or (use) buckets like in 1920? Get a move on and fix the problem, stop lining your pockets and put the money where the water should be.”
Said Brooks: “St. Maarten has a higher demand for water than supply. There is nothing we can do to alleviate it. We are trying to share up the water as much as possible and we are trying to have the production level raised, but that’s the most we can do.
“GEBE is into the distribution of water and not production. Everyone knows this. This is an Island Government problem. Government signed a contract with Air Fin and we are hoping that they will come up with a solution. GEBE can’t do much more than it is doing now. We get a lot of calls daily for water and we try to help as many people as possible.”
He urged people to conserve water. “People can conserve and try to minimise on the use of water as much as possible.”
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