Viewers will recall Hope Creek in the Stann Creek District as one of
those villages that was devastated by the historic flash floods at the end of
May, 2008. And while the waters have long receded, and with it the television
coverage, the village has quietly returned to normal and is tonight reporting
a major quality of life upgrade. It took years to accomplish and cost a third
of a million dollars, but for the first time the one-thousand residents of Hope
Creek now have a twenty four hour water supply. That supply comes from a 20,000
gallon elevated concrete tank, with water from a deep ground well. It’s
a major upgrade from the previous system, a two thousand gallon plastic tank.
Here’s more.
Vicente Chen, Village Chairman
“The village used to get water from the old Forestry Camp that we
used to have there but since the village started to grow that wasn’t sufficient
and then we got this tank here, this black plastic tank. But even though we
had the two, the service was not up to mark. Most of the time we ran out of
water because the demand was high and we needed to pump every minute. So the
water run every time and then the pressure was low and people were complaining
a lot about the pressure.”
Daniel Cano, SIF
“Water supply continues to be a priority for the Social Investment
Fund. Our priority for projects have really been in communities where there
haven’t been a potable water system such as we’ve done in Santa
Rosa, San Roman, and Santa Cruz. But recently some systems such as this one
in North Stann Creek have become a priority because they really needed an upgrade.
As you can see with the old tank and the new tank to provide the community with
the level of service so that everyone could get water 24 hours a day.”
The Hope Creek Water System was funded by the Caribbean Development
Bank, Canadian International Development Agency and the Government of Belize.
The Hope Creek Community provided the labour for the trenching and laying
of the pipes. Hope Creek Village is eight and a half miles from Dangriga Town
and is within the Dangriga constituency.
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