B.W.S. Says Several Projects are Underway to Properly Service Placencia

Belize Water Services is presently in the initial phase of executing several projects to improve the supply of water to Placencia, as well as other communities along the peninsula.  With an inflation in the cost of materials post COVID, the cost of these projects have virtually doubled.  According to C.E.O. Haynes, these works are expected to be completed by early 2024.

Alvan Haynes

Alvan Haynes, C.E.O., Belize Water Services Ltd.

“We expect that next year, we would have the large project completed and this situation would have been resolved completely.  At this point, we are not sure if it would be finished in time for next Easter, but we are going to push the project to try to get that done, knowing what the situation is and knowing the impact it has on the hotels and tourism.  But again, we are pleased to say that even though there is an issue, we believe that we are handling it as well as we can in the immediate short term and the project we have going will take care of the much longer term, as we are planning for a twenty to twenty-five year growth with the new project completed. The big project is estimated at thirteen million dollars.  The original estimate, pre-COVID, was seven million, but the cost of materials, of works, of everything has gone up tremendously.  So the cost of this project has almost doubled in the two or three years it was planned.”

Vonetta Thompson

Vonetta Thompson, Customer Service Manager, B.W.S.

“To date, up to today, we have had about a dozen complaints.  We have addressed those complaints.  We have several mediums where customers could address complaints to us, we have cell phones, we have landlines, we have our call center where we also have been tracking complaints.  And to date, like I said before, we’ve only had twelve complaints.”

Haydon Brown

Haydon Brown, Public Relations Manager, B.W.S.

“In terms of, I believe, the question was asked whether or not the cooperation we are getting from customers, I believe that the hoteliers and other business people there recognize the challenge that we are faced with and I believe that they are cooperating.  Some of the things they can do by themselves, they are actually working on their own using other private entities where they can get supply otherwise.”