28. February 2010 by admin.

… But Gov’t says aerodrome cash hunt not tied to quake relief

Mark Titus, Business Reporter

There is evidence that in the early days of the January 12 earthquake disaster in Haiti, planners of a project to build an air-cargo trans-shipment hub at Vernamfield in Clarendon, slated to cost US$1 billion or J$89.7 billion, had pegged hopes of sourcing international and local funding to kick-start the build-out of the facility to the catastrophe in the populous Caribbean state.

In the early aftermath of the 7.0-magnitude earthquake which flattened much of the Haitian capital city, Port-au-Prince, and claimed more than 230,000 lives, a proposal was put before the Government for Jamaican and foreign donors to be tapped for cash to transform the abandoned airfield into the chief temporary support base for humanitarian supplies destined for the earthquake-ravaged country.

A document obtained by Sunday Business, outlined the concept, drawn up in the early stages of the crisis, for the immediate development and one-year use of the Vernamfield facility as a staging post for moving humanitarian aid to Haiti. It would also carry a short-term 1,000- or 1,500-bed field hospital, temporary warehouses and a sorting centre for relief supplies.

The document, sources say, had been presented to government officials for their consideration.

While saying the facility would be a temporary national goodwill gesture, the planners maintained in the proposal that any permanent structures to be built must be consistent with the long-term use of the land and should conform to the ultimate intention to set up what has been described as a multimodal transport trans-shipment centre.

Fund-raising

Dubbed ‘Air-bridge to the world’, the plan recommended that the European Union, United Nations among other international organisations, as well as local donors, be tapped to raise the cash needed to develop the infrastructure and acquire equipment such as ambulances, buses, cars and minivans

for the ‘humanitarian airbase’. It cited, too, the need for refuelling trucks, aircraft tugs, ground power units, forklifts, refrigerated containers and flatbed trucks.

While acknowledging that any international assistance would go a long way in assisting the long-term plan for the Vernamfield development project, Minister of Transport and Works, Mike Henry told Sunday Business that the project was not dependent on the Haiti-linked proposal.

“Vernamfield is now in the world marketplace for investment. We are talking to business people to give them a massive investment activity,” Henry said. He declined to comment on reports of interest being shown in the project by Asian and European investors.

It is understood that Cabinet had previously instructed the Port Authority to acquire the Vernamfield lands, after which an implementing vehicle, the Vernamfield development company, was to be formed. Earlier plans for a series of community consultations to alert residents of the area about the possibility of being relocated to facilitate the project were postponed.

It is also not immediately clear if the humanitarian-base proposal has been shelved or whether the idea was taken up with any of the proposed funding entities. But the author of the document had underscored the need for quick action before the window of opportunity closed.

“I would urge that Jamaica be prepared to implement this plan within two or three weeks by mobilising resources in a manner similar to the repairing of the Bog Walk gorge after the tropical storm in 2008,” the proposal read.

“Beyond this timeline, the urgency of the international response will diminish signifi-cantly,” it stressed.

The stated benefits of the proposal included reducing congestion at the airport in Port-au-Prince, easing the burden on Haiti’s hospitals and creating employment for Jamaicans living in the Vernamfield area.

“It will represent a tangible contribution to the Haiti relief effort by CARICOM (the Caribbean Community) and other donors that are now being denied entry (into Haiti),” the documentation for the plan noted, even as it accepted that the proposal would “re-establish a national aerodrome asset which can eventually be transformed for future commercial use”.

Temporary housing

Suggesting that temporary housing could be constructed in the area for relief workers and containers used to erect a temporary tower, the proposal noted the need for the International Civil Aviation Authority’s green light for the planning and development of the aerodrome even as a humanitarian relief centre operated by the military.

Located on a property of about 1,773 hectares or 2,900 acres in south-western Clarendon, Vernamfield has long been the pet project of the transport minister who is also the parliamentary representative for the area even before his political party formed the Government in 2007.

During World War II, the facility was used as a United States military airbase. The plans for its revitalisation will include being an air-cargo hub, airline maintenance facility, headquarters for the Jamaica Defence Force air Wing and full outfitting as the island’s third international airport. (Jamaica Gleaner)

mark.titus@gleanerjm.com

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28. February 2010 by admin.

Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding

Prime Minister Bruce Golding will meet with the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management on Wednesday to review Jamaica’s preparedness for an earthquake disaster.

This comes in the wake of earthquakes that have struck several countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, including Venezuela, Bolivia, the Cayman Islands, Argentina and Guatemala, since Haiti was hit in January, as well as warnings by scientists that Jamaica remains highly vulnerable.

The prime minister wishes to ensure that all necessary plans are in place in the event of an earthquake in Jamaica.

Meanwhile, Golding has sent a message to President Michelle Bachelet of Chile on the loss of lives and destruction caused by the severe earthquake. He was especially saddened because at the Caricom/Latin America Summit in Cancun, Mexico, last week, President Bachelet was in the forefront of efforts to mobilise more assistance for Haiti.

Major earthquakes in 2010

• January 3: 6.6 magnitude, Solomon Islands
• January 5: 6.9 magnitude, Solomon Islands
• January 12: 7.0 magnitude, Haiti
• January 18: 6.0 magnitude, Guatemala
• February 4: 6.0 magnitude, California
• February 22: 6.0 magnitude,Tonga region
• February 26: 7.0 magnitude, Ryukyu Islands, Japan
• February 27: 8.8 magnitude, offshore Maule, Chile
• February 27: 6.2 magnitude, offshore Maule, Chile
• February 27: 6.0 magnitude, offshore Valparaiso, Chile
• February 27: 6.0 magnitude, Bio-Bio, Chile
• February 27: 6.9 magnitude, off the coast of Bio-Bio, Chile
• February 27: 6.1 magnitude, offshore Maule, Chile
• February 27: 6.3 magnitude, Salta, Argentina
• February 27: 6.3 magnitude, Offshore Valparaiso, Chile
• February 27: Magnitude 8.8, offshore Maule, Chile(Jamaica Gleaner)

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28. February 2010 by admin.

Analysis by Rickey Singh

FOR ALL the swelling ’friendship’ and ’solidarity’ rhetoric flowing from Latin American leaders, the Caribbean Community (Caricom) has traditionally been responding to initiatives and policies originating with the overwhelming bloc of Latin countries. The significant differences, within the past decade, to reflect more sensitivity for Caribbean thinking and aspiration would be efforts made by governments in Venezuela, Brazil and, to a lesser extent, Chile and Argentina. Some 48 years after the dawn of political independence in Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, two Caricom states-Guyana and Belize-continue to live with the harsh realities of border neigbours, like Venezuela and Guatemala, respectively maintaining age-old territorial claims against them. These claims date back to the imperialistic designs in this hemisphere that so often inform the vocabulary of militant Latin leaders-among them President Hugo Chavez-today’s lead caudillo within the ALBA bloc of states (Bolivarian Alternative to the US-sponsored Free Trade Area of the Americas) In the wider 34-member Organisation of American States (OAS) that has generally been genuflecting to the politics and politics of the United States of America, Caricom holds the single largest bloc of 15 votes (if we can always count with certainty that of the Dominica Republic). But Caricom has usually been pressed to summon its best diplomatic skills to secure its objectives in the OAS, including support for the two primary elected officials-Secretary General and Assistant Secretary General. It is yet to dare its Latin allies to support a Caribbean national for election to the top post of the hemispheric body Now such an occurrence itself may no longer be viewed as a necessary priority in view of a most significant political initiative being vigorously pursued by the Latin American states in collaboration with Caricom. This has to do with the creation of a new hemispheric organisation that, once operationalised, will witness the progressive decline in influence and stature of the 62-year-old OAS. Birth of CLACS Therefore, for the benefit of the people of the 14 sovereign states comprising Caricom, there ought to be a definitive statement-the sooner the better-that offers the rationale and benefits of what’s currently in the making, a ’Community of Latin American and Caribbean States’ (CLACS). Evidently driven by influential Latin neighbours, Caricom has an obligation to ensure that its best interests are NOT submerged in the ’action agendas’ to be shaped and pursued by the Latin American allies without due respect paid to the politics, governance system and culture of our region. The announcement on the establishment of CLACS originated out of Cancun, Mexico, last Tuesday (Feb, 24) at the close of a two-day summit of Latin American and Caribbean Heads of Government and Foreign Ministers. Among the absent Caricom leaders were the President of Guyana and Prime Ministers of Barbados, Jamaica and St Vincent and the Grenadines and Jamaica. But very much an active participant was Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Patrick Manning, who hosted and chaired last year’s Fifth Summit of the Americas in Port-of-Spain. Caricom’s current chairman, Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit of Dominica, felt it necessity to quickly go on the defensive in explaining to media questions, that the intention was not to ’ignore’, or to ’mash up’ the OAS. For starters, the OAS is the post-war hemispheric body established back in 1948 in Washington and which, largely, has remained under the dominant political influence of the US, in collaboration with Canada. That influence has been the determining factor, for example, in the suspension and continuing exclusion of Cuba from the OAS for some 47 years! Neither the US nor Canada As I recall, there was a meeting in Montego Bay, Jamaica last November of Latin American and Caribbean Foreign Ministers to discuss approaches towards an alternative hemispheric body to the OAS-without either the USA or Canada as members. Both are, of course, regarded as traditional and valued ’friends’ of Caricom., whatever the varied criteria in cases of ’needs’. The Foreign Ministers’ recommendations were expected to be submitted to Heads of State and Government for approval. But there has been a virtual black-out of news on the matter until the just-concluded summit in Cancun. There is some disagreement whether a structured caucus of Caricom heads of delegation did precede the summit of Latin and Caribbean leaders in Cancun that decided to have CLACS as alternative to the OAS. The groundwork for the Montego Bay meeting of Latin American and Caribbean Foreign Ministers, as well as last week;s Cancun summit, would have been laid by the historic conference hosted in December 2008 in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. The stated aim of the seminal Salvador summit was ’strengthening of regional integration and establishing effective commitments for joint action to promote the sustainable development of their peoples…’ It did not escape notice that, for the first time-ever, both the US and Canada were excluded from such an historic gathering of leaders of the hemisphere and who had emerged with the far-reaching ’Declaration of Salvador, Bahia’ that, seemingly, had provided the intellectual stimulant for strategising over the creation of the emerging ’Community of Latin American and Caribbean States’. It is not known, with certainty, whether there has been any prior discussion within the councils of the OAS on the alternative hemispheric body that is to have its own Charter, with rotating secretariats, in contrast to the OAS’ permanent headquarters in Washington. Details on the charter of CLACS, funding, functioning and related matters are expected to be finalised at a follow-up summit, possibly by June, in Venezuela. Interestingly, against the background of the Cancun summit and the expected demise in the importance and influence of the OAS with the emergence of CLACS, there is to be a scheduled special session of the OAS General Assembly on March 24 to elect (or re-elect) the organisation’s Secretary General (Chile’s Jose Miguel Insulza) and his Suriname-born deputy Albert Ramdin. The special session of the General Assembly will be preceded by a two-day meeting of the OAS with representatives of the ’Haitian diaspora’ in the USA to discuss the reconstruction of earthquake-shattered Haiti, ahead of a United Nations-sponsored Donors Conference later next month. (Trinidad Express)

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28. February 2010 by admin.

Aabida Allaham

HOLY GROUND: The Arima Girls Government Primary School where Apostle Reverend Juliana Pena conducts regular worship services. Inset: The classroom in which they spend close to seven hours chanting and praying. -Photos: Aabida Allaham JULIANA PENA, the woman being labelled as Prime Minister Patrick Manning’s spiritual adviser, has been conducting church services every Sunday at an Arima school for over a year. Sources told the Sunday Express that Pena, who is in her early 60s, has been using a classroom on the second floor of the Arima Girls’ Government Primary School since early last year to offer spiritual guidance to a small group of ’underprivileged’ people. Former president Sir Ellis Clarke admitted yesterday that he has met Pena, having been introduced to her by Manning, a few years ago. Clarke said he does not remember where the meeting took place. When asked if he believed she was in fact Manning’s spiritual adviser, he said Manning, ’never denied that he had one, but that is his business and he might have more than one, for all I know’. The congregation at the Arima school, the source said, consists of less than a dozen people and they would normally gather at the compound from about 9 a.m and stay there until about 3 p.m. without breaking for lunch or a snack. ’They would get dropped off by a taxi or something, or come walking while she (Pena) would pull up in a fancy (greenish/blue) Jaguar,’ he said. The source could not say if Pena was paying for use of the premises, but said a former teacher at the school was also a member of the congregation. ’Yes, she would come and they would be praying, and signing…the songs, sound like Pentecostal, but it is a kind of mix-up…they have they own kind of thing so I can’t say if is born again or what,’ the source said. Attempts to contact the school’s principal, Annestar Ramsey, as well as communication officers at the Ministry of Education, Elton Wickam and Rory Subiah, about the use of the school to conduct these services were unsuccessful. Meanwhile, a visit to Pena’s family home along the Arima Old Road yesterday also resulted in many dead-ends. Her youngest brother, who only wished to be identified as Mr Pereira, said he did not like the media coming to his home because neither he nor his family has had anything to do with Juliana or her church. Pereira, 35, saying he was 30 years younger than Pena, also said he only heard from his sister when she called to talk to their mother Minitra (Pena) Pereira, and even then, he said, the conversations did not go beyond ’hello’. Asked why he did not keep in touch with his sister, Pereira said, ’we just have different ways’. Other sources said Pena spent most of her life in Arima until migrating to the American Midwest in her twenties, the so-called Bible belt, which is where she supposedly developed her religious fervour. Sources also said Pena has been married twice, her first marriage was to a former national footballer who reportedly got custody of the couple’s children following their divorce. Pena subsequently married a man named Devonish and reports are that the couple is currently in the process of being divorced. Trevor Devonish, Pena’s brother-in-law, told the Sunday Express that his brother, who lives in Cumana, has nothing to do with the church being built in the Heights of Guanapo by the Shanghai Construction Company for an estimated $30 million and is very ’worried’ about his name being called in this. ’She has always been a very religious person…she and my brother used to go around to old people’s home and pray with them and help. ’I did not even know where they used to find them, but these were people who needed help and that is the kind of thing they used to do. So I am sure if she is building a church, it’s to do good work and I don’t know why the media has all this negative spin on it,’ he said at his business place along the Eastern Main Road in Arima yesterday. When the Sunday Express asked how Pena, who is currently using her mother’s maiden name, would be able to get the funding to build such an elaborate church, Devonish said, ’Julie have international connections and she is very well connected’. He said she was really very good at what she does. ’She has the ability to really get in touch with her spiritual side you know…there were times when I was having some tough times in my business and Julie would just show up and do her prayers and thing and everything would fall back on track,’ he said. Still, he could not say why his estranged sister-in-law had not come forward and cleared her name or made a statement about the church. Another one of Pena’s brothers also called the Sunday Express offices yesterday and said whatever she was doing was nobody’s business. Describing himself as the older sibling and a former police officer, he said he wanted the media to stop hounding them down and leave his sister alone because, ’whatever she is doing, wherever she getting money from is none of all yuh business’. ’The Prime Minister says the church is not his and he can give donations to who he want, what all yuh want again.’ he added. Her youngest brother, who asked that he be called Mr Perreira, told the Sunday Express he last heard that his sister lived somewhere in St Ann’s. (Trinidad Express)

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28. February 2010 by admin.

Honolulu

A tsunami triggered by the Chilean earthquake sent a surge of water ashore in Hawaii, California and islands in the South Pacific yesterday, as the waves continued onto Alaska and parts of Asia. There were no immediate reports of widespread damage, injuries or deaths in the US or in the Pacific islands, but a tsunami that swamped a village on an island off Chile killed at least five people and left 11 missing. In Hawaii, water began pulling away from shore off Hilo Bay on the Big Island just before noon, exposing reefs and sending dark streaks of muddy, sandy water offshore. Waves later washed over Coconut Island, a small park off Hilo’s coast. The tsunami caused a series of surges that were about 20 minutes apart, and the waves arrived later and smaller than originally predicted. The highest wave at Hilo measured 5.5 feet high, while Maui saw some as high as 6.5 feet. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre cancelled its tsunami warning for Hawaii. ’We dodged a bullet,’ said Gerard Fryer, a geophysicist for the warning centre. He said there was the possibility that the tsunami would gain strength again as it heads to Japan. There were no immediate reports of widespread damage around the Pacific Rim, just tidal surges that reached up to about seven feet in some island chains. Waves hit California, but barely registered amid stormy weather. Nearly 50 countries and island chains remained under tsunami warnings, from Antarctica to Russia’s far northeast.

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28. February 2010 by admin.

Honolulu

The people of Chile are in fear and are panicking since a massive earthquake of magnitude 8.8 on the Richter scale hit the country, says Chilean resident Mina Pugno. Pugno, who is in Santiago, Chile, spoke to her daughter, Sandra Nanton, who lives in Santa Cruz, through Skype and recalled the moments she experienced when the earthquake occurred. Pugno also responded to questions posed to her by TV6. ’You are never prepared for this. It was very scary,’ she said. Pugno said fortunately, the night before the earthquake, she received an e-mail on what a person should do in the event of an earthquake. She said the e-mail stated that a person must go out in the street and lie in a foetal position. However, she had to take into consideration her mother, who is in her 80s, so she drove the car into the street, where they stayed till the shaking stopped and eventually slept in till the morning. Pugno said the people of Chile were panicking, with many rushing to buy food and water because they do not know what will happen next. She said order is being maintained as there was a heavy police presence on the streets. Pugno, through her computer’s webcam, was able to show the cracks on her walls as well and broken sculptures. She said for an earthquake of that magnitude there was minimal damage because the buildings were built to withstand disaster. Nanton said she received a telephone call from her stepmother in Venezuela at 7 a.m., informing her of the earthquake. ’When I turned on the television to CNN and saw it was an 8.8, I started to cry. I was very scared,’ she said. Nanton said the fear grew when she tried calling her mother and other family members in vain. Eventually, she said, she was able to connect with her mother on Skype and felt a sense of relief to know her family was in no grave danger. ’My sister told me this was six times worse than Haiti… I get worried for Trinidad because I know we are not prepared. We’re not and it’s scary,’ she said.

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28. February 2010 by admin.

solidarity: Marcel Young, left, Chile’s Ambassador in Haiti, greets Haitian President Rene Preval yesterday at the ambassador’s residence in Port-au-Prince. Preval paid a visit to the ambassador to offer Haiti’s solidarity with Chile after a powerful earthquake struck Chile early yesterday morning. One of the largest earthquakes ever recorded tore apart houses, bridges and highways in central Chile yesterday and sent a tsunami racing halfway around the world. Chileans near the epicentre were tossed about as if shaken by a giant, and authorities said nearly 150 people were dead. The magnitude-8.8 quake was felt as far away as Sao Paulo in Brazil-1,800 miles to the east. The full extent of damage remained unclear as scores of aftershocks-one nearly as powerful as Haiti’s devastating January 12 earthquake-shuddered across the disaster-prone Andean nation. President Michelle Bachelet declared a ’state of catastrophe’ in central Chile, but said the government has not asked for assistance from other countries. If it does, US President Barack Obama has said the United States ’will be there’. Around the world, leaders echoed his sentiment. In Chile, newly built apartment buildings slumped and fell. Flames devoured a prison. Millions of people fled into streets darkened by the failure of power lines. The collapse of bridges tossed and crushed cars and trucks-and complicated efforts to reach quake-damaged areas by road. At least 147 people were killed, according to Carmen Fernandez, director of the National Emergency Agency. She said hundreds of thousands of people had their houses damaged or destroyed. In Talca, just 65 miles from the epicentre, people sleeping in bed suddenly felt like they were flying through major airplane turbulence as their belongings cascaded around them from the shuddering walls at 3.34 a.m. A deafening roar rose from the convulsing earth as buildings groaned and clattered. The sound of screams was confused with the crash of plates and windows. Then the earth stilled, silence returned and a smell of moist dust rose in the streets, where stunned survivors took refuge. A journalist emerging into the darkened street scattered with downed power lines saw a man, some of his own bones apparently broken, weeping and caressing the hand of a woman who had died in the collapse of a cafe. Two other victims lay dead a few feet away. Also near the epicentre was Concepcion, one of the country’s largest cities, where a 15-storey building collapsed, leaving a few floors intact. ’I was on the eighth floor and all of a sudden I was down here,’ said Fernando Abarzua, marvelling that he escaped with no major injuries. He said a relative was still trapped in the rubble six hours after the quake, ’but he keeps shouting, saying he’s OK’. In the capital of Santiago, 200 miles northeast of the epicentre, a car dangled from a collapsed overpass, the national Fine Arts Museum was badly damaged and an apartment building’s two-storey parking lot pancaked, smashing about 50 cars whose alarms rang incessantly. While most modern buildings survived, a bell tower collapsed on the Nuestra Senora de la Providencia church and several hospitals were evacuated due to damage. Santiago’s airport was closed, with smashed windows, partially collapsed ceilings and destroyed pedestrian walkways in the passenger terminals. The capital’s subway was shut as well, and transportation was further limited because hundreds of buses were stuck behind a damaged bridge. The jolt set off a tsunami that swamped San Juan Bautista village on Robinson Crusoe Island off Chile-’a big wave that covered half of the village’, said regional governor Ivan de la Maza. It then raced across the Pacific, setting off alarm sirens in Hawaii, Polynesia and Tonga and prompting warnings across all 53 nations ringing the vast ocean. Experts said eight-foot waves were likely to hit Hilo, Hawaii. Officials evacuated people and boats near the water and closed shore-side Hilo International Airport. About 13 million people live in the area where shaking was strong to severe, according to the US Geological Survey. USGS geophysicist Robert Williams said the Chilean quake was hundreds of times more powerful than Haiti’s magnitude-7 quake, though it was deeper and cost far fewer lives. More than 50 aftershocks topped magnitude 5, including one of magnitude 6.9. The largest earthquake ever recorded struck the same area of Chile on May 22, 1960. The magnitude-9.5 quake killed 1,655 people and left two million homeless. It caused a tsunami that killed people in Hawaii, Japan and the Philippines, and caused damage along the west coast of the United States. Yesterday’s quake matched a 1906 temblor off the Ecuadorean coast as the seventh-strongest ever recorded in the world.

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28. February 2010 by admin.

by ALBERT BRANDFORD
GOVERNMENT is proposing to stop subsidising state agencies such as the National Housing Corporation (NHC) and the Barbados Water Authority (BWA), leaving them to fend for themselves over the next four years.

This decision is one of the main fiscal strategies designed by the David Thompson Administration in a new policy on expenditure management.

According to Government’s Medium-Term Fiscal Strategy (MTFS) 2010-2014, caps will also be placed on the transfers to statutory boards, statutory corporations and Government-owned companies such as the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Transport Board, Barbados Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation and the University of the West Indies.

The SUNDAY SUN obtained a copy of the MFTS ahead of a day-long Public/Private Sector Consultation on Economic and Related Matters scheduled for tomorrow from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and will be broadcast live on CBC TV 8 from the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre.

In addition, Government will reduce annual transfers to, and the accumulation of debt by, the Barbados Agricultural Management Company (BAMC) by $40 million by 2013/2014.

“The policy will be to regularly review the efficiency of Government’s expenditure programmes and seek where possible to remove wasteful spending, remove excess spending due to inefficient and uncoordinated/unshared procedures, reduce cost overruns and improve service delivery,” the document said.

“More specifically, ministries will have to review and reprioritise their programmes to help reduce costs by improving procedures to remove inefficiencies, and by sharing more resources and more procedures between programmes.

“Further, state-owned agencies will have to improve their levels of efficiency and rely less on Government subventions.”

One of the key strategies to managing Government spending, and one that is likely to be controversial, is

a proposal that would rule out negotiated wage settlement up to 2014.

Government’s plan is to contain personal emoluments cost by allowing total growth to be the equivalent of the sum that would normally be paid as increments.

“This will depend largely on containing the growth in public sector employment,” the MTFS document said.

On the revenue management side, the document said the entire tax system would be reviewed by the Caribbean Regional Technical Assistance Centre (CARTAC) that is based here, but there would be a broadening of the VAT by restructuring fiscal incentives, essentially removing concessions from private investments.

In addition, there will be an increase in excise taxes to capture losses in import duties due to the European Partnership Agreement (EPA), while licences and fees are to be increased in line with inflation and costs to improve services to which they relate.(Nation News)

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28. February 2010 by admin.

DR ATLEE BRATHWAITE: We have to think in terms of a drought action plan or a drought mitigation plan. That is where we are at the moment.

Barbados is currently in a drought. Early in January the Caribbean Drought and Precipitation Monitoring Network served notice that this country would be facing a serious drought over the next three months. Predictions are it will continue until the end of May.

The Barbados Water Authority has now implemented a Drought Action Plan which will help to properly manage the already scarce water resources.

Chairman Dr Atlee Brathwaite sat down with SUNDAY SUN Editor Carol Martindale on Friday to address the issue.

Q: HOW SERIOUS is the situation as it relates to Barbados’ water resources?

A: The information I have received (about one of our reservoirs at Bowmanston) for 2009 is ten inches less than [in] 2008. This really suggests a serious situation in terms of water availability.

With a serious drought, the water levels will be reduced to the point where instead of drawing fresh water, we may begin to draw salt water, and in some cases our wells may become dry.

Right now I don’t have any report that any of our wells are dry as such, but there are reports that the levels are substantially reduced, which means that given time, if we do not get water to replenish them there is a possibility of wells becoming dry and increased salinity in the water. So that has to be managed.

Q: How do we manage this to avoid the possibility of wells going dry?

A: With the onset of a drought, one would necessarily have to put certain plans in place to mitigate the effects of a drought situation. We have to think in terms of a drought action plan, or a drought mitigation plan. That is where we are at the moment.

Q: With the increasing fires every day and the fact that more drinking water is being drawn on to fight fires, how is this compounding the problem? Fire officers say it takes as much as 6 000 gallons of water daily sometimes.

A: If you continue to extract and you are not getting in, then there is a good chance of affecting the various levels. These indicator levels could be affected - salinity levels, the groundwater levels and precipitation.

In a drought situation there is no rain. There is no water flowing in, the water is flowing out, given the fact that there are many demands on our water resources - agricultural demands, domestic demands, tourist sector demands - a whole range of things.

Q: There is now talk of possibly rationing water. What form will this take and how soon can we expect this?

A: When we talk about conservation measures

that is Stage 1. If things get worse, we would have to move to Stage 2. That will mean the employing of mandatory water use restrictions.

Such actions would include prohibition and distribution system shut-offs. The Caribbean Met Institute is a creditable institution that will use scientific methods to project what is happening.

So we have to treat what the institute says seriously. So entering a Stage 2 scenario is a possibility if the drought, as the Met Institute suggests, will continue for any length of time.

I can’t say when it will happen, but you use certain triggers to determine this.

Q: Is there a Stage 3?

A: Stage 3 would include more stringent measures. One would have to be policing the use of water, because Stage 2 is prohibition; but Stage 3 would be stronger prohibition by way of laws, acts and policing. It is okay for the BWA to say we will check to see if you are using water for cars, for example; but unless you have teeth in that action, you may still find that people do it.

Q: Right now we sell water to cruise ships. Can we afford to continue this at this critical time?

A: We have to. This is part of the tourist industry. If a tourist ship comes in and needs water we should be in a position to make water available. Given the fact that we depend so heavily on the tourist sector we should not - unless it is absolutely necessary not to make water available - we should try our best to do so. We don’t want it to be said that cruise ships came into Barbados and the tourists could not get water. If we are inviting tourists to this country we should try our best to be as accommodating as possible.

Q: This is also polo season and the polo fields have to be lush and green. Also the golf courses. What impact is this having on our water supply?

A: It will have some impact. The people at golf courses will argue that they have their own water sources. But you have to remember that water comes from the same source, whether it is from BWA or private organisations. So any water that is extracted from our water resource will have an effect.

Q: Have we started to meet with the major players?

A: Not yet. We have put together an in-house task force which is looking very carefully at the drought situation. As time progresses we will widen the composition of that task force to include sectors and users of water because one would want to bring to their attention how serious the condition is and get their cooperation in terms of managing the limited water resources we have at our disposal. The in-house task force includes senior engineers and public relation officers as they need to advise people on how to conserve water.

Q: What is being done to expedite repairs on the four (out of 12) water tankers that are down?

A: We have 12 tankers and four are not operating at the level they ought to. We have on order four tankers, and wherever in the private sector we can lease or borrow tankers, we will do that. We have to think in terms of getting ourselves ready to provide water if there is no water flowing from the taps.

So we have to ensure that our tanker service is operating. That is very critical.

I know the specs have already been drawn up for the tankers, but I am not sure when we will get them. The board has given permission to go ahead and order.

Q: Do we still lose approximately 40 per cent of our water as a result of leaks?

A: Our mains are old, and whenever you repair a leak, you tend to build up pressure and it bursts somewhere else. What we are trying to do is to initiate a programme of replacing all mains. That is a major programme, and we hope this will start this year.

We already have been able to convince the Inter-[American] Development Bank that they should lend us some money to do this. In addition, we should be talking to the Caribbean Development Bank for additional funds to put into such a project. And of course we will borrow money as necessary to be able to maximise that project.

We recognise the replacement of mains is crucial to our ability to deliver quality water to people when they want water. It will also effect efficiencies and savings in terms of the operational costs of the BWA. We lose between 40 per cent and 60 per cent of water due to leaky mains.

Q: What about the BWA’s maintenance programme?

A: We are giving considerable attention to this. We want to think in terms of introducing a 24-hour service in BWA. At the moment we don’t, [have one]and as a result our maintenance programme suffers because we cannot respond to situations as quickly as we ought to.

The whole question of preventative maintenance has been a problem; but with increased time available to our staff we will be able to not only respond quickly to problems as they arise but also be able to introduce a more effective means of preventative maintenance.

We have to discuss it with the union since it has implications for the union. But it is something we are considering and the board is inclined to introduce the 24-hour service after consultation with the union.

Q: How do you rate your customer service at the BWA?

A: We recognise customer service is crucial. We have been trying to improve on customer service. We now have a team of telephone receptionists - three to four - who work from 4:30 to 12 at night, taking certain calls and dealing with certain problems that arise. They are able to bring these problems to the attention of the distribution department and customer service department.

l carolmartindale
@nationnews.com

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28. February 2010 by admin.

PRIME MINISTER DAVID THOMPSON’S removal of Senator Arni Walters from Cabinet and his appointment as Executive Chairman of the Barbados Water Authority (BWA) is “a classic case of treating the symptoms and not the cause of the disease”.

That’s according to Leader of the Opposition Mia Mottley in a Press statement last night.

Mottley was responding to Thompson’s announcement yesterday that Senator Arni Walters, Minister of State with responsibility for Labour and Immigration, would now be the executive chairman of the BWA.

“Even more disturbing, though, is that the post of executive chairman does not exist within the Barbados Water Authority Act. The Prime Minister is essentially placing Mr Walters on a collision course with the law.”

In a separate statement, Mottley said Thompson’s actions and, in some cases, inaction were “a danger to this country’s stability.” And today, at a Barbados Labour Party branch meeting at St Alban’s School, she said she will be showing the public that the Prime Minister’s Medium Term Fiscal Strategy is the IMF’s (International Monetary Fund) plan, as reflected last year in the IMF’s Article IV Consultation. (Nation News)

The meeting begins at 4:30 p.m. (PR).

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