Sabotage prompts temporary water shortage…
The first hint that today was not business as usual came in the form of a lack of water pressure in Belize City and municipalities countrywide. News 5’s Jacqueline Woods visited B.W.S. headquarters this morning to find out what went wrong.
Martin Greenhalgh, CEO, B.W.S.
?It wasn?t a surprise, it was fairly well publicise that this action would take place, we had indeed engaged with the Government and with all the stakeholders in B.W.S. including our regulator and the union to try and stop this type of action from occurring.?
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
But around six thirty this morning the water supply was deliberately shut off when a saboteur tampered with the company?s main pipes that run under the Haulover Bridge on the Northern Highway. According to B.W.S. Chief Executive Officer Martin Greenhalgh, they expected a mass walkout by their employees but they were unable to guarantee the safe and continued supply of water without them.
Martin Greenhalgh
?In a water company we differ somewhat from the other utilities. We need people, skilled labour out there controlling the product, controlling the distribution of the product. Given the scale of the walkout this morning we just couldn?t ensure that the quality of the supply would be maintained.?
?As far as we know it was break in the pipes. Somebody has actually–where the pipe goes over Haulover Bridge, it?s accessible above ground and as far as we can ascertain at this point in time as we say we are still trying to establish the nature of all these incidents that we are hearing reports of. The damage was done to the pipe above ground level.?
?Well the cut occurred countrywide. It started off around six thirty this morning in Orange walk and progressively the assets were shut down by the staff or members of the unions who were demonstrating.?
?Certainly that kind of damage is irresponsible. At the end of the day the overriding concern not only of the board of directors and the management of the company, but also of the staff is to ensure that the water quality and service levels are maintained. This kind of damage can only hamper the recovery process after this type of incident.?
A total of two hundred B.W.S. employees stayed home while the company?s management staff reported to work. Greenhalgh says they do not know for certain if any of the union workers were involved in the sabotage and the extent of the damage.
Martin Greenhalgh
?Well, we are still trying to establish the extent of any damage done to our assets. Certainly, I do not believe for one moment at this time that any of the union or staff were involved in any damage to our assets. That certainly is not the case as far as we can ascertain.?
Following the industrial action, B.W.S. Management met with B.W.S. workers union to discuss what can be done to restore the essential service. Greenhalgh would not go into the specifics of the meeting but says after intensive dialogue both parties agreed to managed shut down to ensure at least a limited supply of safe potable water.
Martin Greenhalgh
?Since the action took place at six thirty this morning, obviously we have been in dialogue with the union and I have to say with the support of the Government, the regulator etc as well. We held numerous meetings with the union in effort to dissuade them from this action but in the end and very professionally, I have to say, we reached an agreement with the president of the union and the senior members that we can instigate a rationing programme as part of their demonstration but over riding all those concerns we can then start to re-establish supply of this essential service.?
Jacqueline Woods for News 5.
The water pressure was restored at one this afternoon and will remain strong until ten tonight when it will be turned off. Water supply resumes at six Friday morning until nine and then shuts down until five in the evening. It comes back on from five to nine at night and goes off until midnight, at which time full service should be restored for the weekend. Late word from B.W.S. is that it was a deliberate act of damage to one of their air valves that caused today’s initial disruption.
