70% of St. Kitts and Nevis now enjoys 24-hour water supply: PM Terrance Drew

St. Kitts and Nevis: Prime Minister Dr. Terrance Drew recently shared that St. Peters now has a 24-hour water supply. He noted that approximately 70 percent of the island now benefits from a reliable 24-hour water supply during his Roundtable media briefing on June 25..

During the discussion, Prime Minister Drew highlighted the significant strides made to strengthen water security across St Kitts and Nevis foremost as shared by the official government pages and channels. In his opening statement he shared : “The water in St. Peter's has improved significantly over the last week or two. You have seen the improvement as well. I'm fully aware of it because we have invested significantly.. to ensure that St. Peter's gets back to 24/7.”

He highlighted that this may have happened after 30+ years as he was able to recall so because he, himself, hails fromx St. Peter’s and faced interruptions earlier. He mentioned that water supply planning has been a priority of the government since they assumed office in 2022. The evaluations, back then, pointed out that St. Kitts and Nevis was on track to become one of the most water-scarce countries worldwide primarily due to climate change.

This led to reprioritization of their agenda towards water security. He pinpointed the major reasons for the water shortage to be “excess pressure on the aquifer at Basseterre because .. the sea level is rising and there is a risk of saltwater intrusion into the aquifer. And the more you extract, the higher the risk of saltwater intrusion.”

In addition to that, he mentioned : “We also knew that there would be decreased rainfall and irregular rainfall,” and called the current situation as what he described as the “worst droughts in our recorded history” owing to climate change and El-Nino as the potential reasons for water scarcity.

He justified the installation of the $50 million USD as : “We had to just take up the money that we took up to invest in a two-million gallon desalination plant. … there were a lot of doubters with respect to how this would be done. However, we were able to complete it, and today that desalination plant is providing two million gallons per day of water for our people. That has allowed us to give the aquifer some rest so that we do not over-extract, and then there's saltwater intrusion, so it has saved the aquifer.”

He underscored there is 24-hour water supply throughout the capital city of Basseterre : “We are able to supply the whole of Basseterre with 24-hour coverage of water.” This has allowed further investment as : “That cost us about $50 million, the desalination plant. Then we had to invest in a pipeline from the Basseterre Valley aquifer through Taylors all the way up to St. Peter's.”

He said that the lower portion of St. Peter’s is being supplied water through the aquifer while the upper portion through surface runoff from Green Hill fundamentally. That is how the government is able to pull off a 24-hour supply essentially.

He appreciated fellow cabinet members as : “ I'm really want to take this opportunity to thank the Honorable Konris Maynard, who is the minister with responsibility for water, and the whole of the water department and Mr. Cromwell Williams, Kurt Caddy, and all the others who are there,” while he mentioned the other ongoing endeavours of the government : “We also invested in drilling, not just in Cayon, but we are presently drilling around the country. We're in Saddlers presently.”

This has achieved Drew’s government the recognition of covering 70% of St. KItts and Nevis under the 24-hour water supply facility. “So the whole of St. Kitts and Nevis, 70% of St. Kitts and Nevis right now is 24 hour. And we have achieved that because when we got in office, it was only 20-plus percent. We have increased that by about 50% in three and a half years, um, definitely less than four years,” he said.

The Prime Minister also outlined future plans, “We hope to achieve the 24 hour for the whole country in short order because the strategy is already working. So $100 million later, I can safely say that we are in a different space, and climate change and El Niño will not have the impact that they would have had, had we not reprioritized our strategy in government, to ensure that our people would have access to water.”

He reassured that, “We are drilling around the country for those other communities which don't have a water shortage as bad as these areas would have. So even though some of them may not have 24 hour, they have water on a daily basis.”

The Roundtable series serves as an important platform for open dialogue which allows the government to keep citizens informed about matters of national importance along with their progress and challenges respectively. According to the government, engaging directly with the media is a method of the incumbent Prime Minister Drew to “reinforce his government's commitment to transparency, accountability, and good governance.”