BWS to Expand Operations on Both Sides of Caye Caulker

Belize Water Services is yet to follow it sister utility’s lead and face the people of Caye Caulker.  Representatives of the company were noticeably absent from the island today, despite there also being a water shortage issue at hand.  On Tuesday, B.W.S. was able to restore limited water to its customers and that flow was merely a trickle.  While they were not out there today, News Five was able to speak with operations manager Dave Pascascio who shared plans of an expansion project that will also alleviate issues customers are having with potable water on the island.

Dave Pascascio

Dave Pascascio, Operations Manager, B.W.S.L.

“What we are planning to do is commission that second plant on the south of the island then we also have plans to do another production plant on the north of the island because the north is rapidly growing too.  So we‘ve just purchased a piece of land recently to look at that option and we‘ve asked for more land on that side of the island because the land that we have on the south side is completely taken up with the production for that side, the production system there.  So we can‘t expand any further than the second reverse osmosis containerized plant on the south but there is an underwater pipeline that goes across the split that is very vulnerable because it‘s sitting on the bed of the Split so we say we need to have two separate reverse osmosis plants so that in case we need to shut off that, if it is compromised then we can produce on the north and produce on the south.”

Reporter

“So but then, would you accept then that because of the seasonal demand for water, relating to the tourism season, that it more quickly depleted the storage than it would have in the middle of the year, let‘s say?”

Dave Pascascio

“Well that is true, the more the demand put on the storage, the shorter it will last.  It was only, I mean, on the twenty-third we had to shut down because of the broken shaft, the first broken shaft, well not the first broken shaft.  That was not broken, that was just wear over time, and so that took a hit on the storage.  We went through the Christmas and Boxing Day holidays, chipping away at storage, chipping away at storage and then when the shaft broke on the twenty-seventh we just had to depend totally on storage.”