Smashed pipe leaves Belize City without water

The whole of Belize City was without water today and even as I speak there are many households which still have nothing but humid air flowing through the pipes. The cause of the problem was a break in the high-pressure water pipe which runs down the Northern Highway from the water treatment plant near Sandhill. A B.T.L. crew digging the trench for their new fiber optic cable managed to tear up an entire twenty-foot length of the fourteen inch diameter pipe this morning near mile seven. WASA crews have been working all day to fix the situation and by late this afternoon replaced and tested the new section and were in the process of flushing the pipes and refilling the various reservoirs around the city. A spokesman for B.T.L. told News Five that its trenching crew had dug test pits every hundred feet to locate the pipe but in that particular spot they claim the pipe deviated from the estimated path. WASA Chief Winston Michael told News Five that by early tonight full water pressure should be restored throughout the entire city.