While the people of St Lucy continue to fret over brown water pouring out of their taps, Barbados TODAY’s Lourianne Graham discovers that over the border in St Peter, things are also… brown.
St Lucy folk are not the only ones suffering from brown water woes. Residents in the eastern St Peter community of Collins, and some even as far west as Six Mens, say they are also seeing brown water coming from their pipes.
Collins residents say the issue has been ongoing for as long as ten years, so long that it has become part of their everyday lives. When Barbados TODAY visited the community on Friday, the presence of at least two permanent Barbados Water Authority (BWA) tanks made it clear this has been a long-standing issue.
Raheem Hurley says he has lived in the area on and off with his mother, and everyone in the area uses the water from the tanks every day.
“I think there is a tank further down as well, so most people that live in that area don’t have to come out here, you know what I’m saying, yeah, so it would be mostly like people from out there, most people in the gap down there and we here.
“This was happening like during COVID…like five to six years.”
He says the matter has gone on for so long that he has gotten used to it. Carrying water for his household and for some of the elderly in the area has become part of his routine.
There are a lot of older ladies in the neighbourhood and so on. I got great aunts and great uncles that are older, you know, so it can be a problem for them as well,” he says.
“It’s supposed to be refilled like every two days or something like that, but normally, sometimes the tank does get empty for a day and stuff like that. So whoever in the neighbourhood would make a call, and they would come and fill it up.”
Hurley says that while the water is not as bad as it used to be, there is still a noticeable brown hue and a distinct taste of rust.
“You can see, it looks a little brown, but like couple months back and stuff like that, it was really brown. I wouldn’t even think about brushing my teeth with it,” he says. “I do not wash my white clothes in the machine; I use the same tank water.”
Another resident says that since his ten-year-old son was born, the problem has never gone away.
“The other day they take like two days before they refilled it,” he says.
The condition of the water from the pipes makes it impossible to drink.
“Sometimes we got water home, catch and put down, and we just like use the one home to cook and clean and use the one in the pipe to do other things.”
With four people in his household, he says the bottled water they buy never lasts long.
“We got nuff things to do, cook and clean, and that water and that water there so not good. If you even catch that water in a bucket, bare brown things in the water, that water can’t be good. Same way it is in the bucket, it is in your stomach the same way.”
“Sometimes it smell bilgy,” he adds.
Even the water from the tank is not perfect. “That one don’t get flush out.”
Hurley says there have been no visits from BWA officials or any government representatives, only the Democratic Labour Party candidate for the area.
“Jason Phillips…I saw him talking to my mother and she was actually talking to him [about] water and stuff, yeah, so he says he think… like it’s not, it’s not acceptable,” Hurley says.
“It’s a big topic in Barbados now, they should be aware of it…I think it’s the whole north.”
The Collins residents say they hope the issue will be resolved soon.
On the west coast in Six Mens, some residents say that for the past year they have also been seeing brown water in their pipes, particularly in the early hours of the morning.
“Early morning…but when it runs off, it goes back to normal,” one man explains.
“I don’t know why. Some part in St Peter, all around the village, their water not brown,” said another man from the coastal village. “Higher up in Six Mens you get brown water, that water from St Lucy though.”
Residents say this started after their water source was changed from Speightstown to St Lucy.
“They say they working on it now…they said by next year.”
The Six Mens residents say they’ve been given the assurance that by next year the issue will be fixed, but after years of brown, rusty water, few are holding their breath.
(LG)
The post ‘Smells bilgy’: Families in St Peter struggle for clean water appeared first on Barbados Today.
