Belize Water Service's Limited was up next, and the company's CEO, Alvin Haynes, briefly discussed their plans to restore their reverse osmosis plant's full capacity. Here's what he had to say about that and the water company's plan to try and keep pace with Caye Caulker's rapid growth:
Alvan Haynes - CEO, BWSL
"Belize Water Services has been serving Caye Caulker for the last 10 years or so. The plant that we put in place was sized to meet the capacity and the estimated growth for the next 20 years. Obviously, the growth in Caye Caulker has been phenomenal, and we have observed over the last 5 years that the growth in connections and consumption in Caye Caulker has been the highest growth in all the service areas that BWS serves."
"As you're all aware, we have a reverse osmosis water treatment plant, which essentially takes saltwater from an underground well, and pushes it through members to come out with pure water. The fault that we have had recently, is simply that the pump that is needed to push that water at high pressure through those membranes had a fault. The original shaft wore out just before Christmas. The backup shaft that was in stores for about 4 or 5 years is a long, 6-foot plus, 3 quarter-inch diameter metal rod, must have at some point taken a little bend, kick, whatever. So, from the time it was installed, the team realized that there were some odd vibrations from it, but it's a unit that we don't usually expect to change."
"That unit lasted a few days. We had already placed orders for replacement, but those replacements are custom-made, and it was the Christmas Holidays."
"One of the brand new shafts that we have gotten them to rush will land in the country on Tuesday. So, we're crossing our fingers and toes that we're good until at least until that one is in."
"We have also been planning ahead. We have actually put a small containerized 40,000 gallon-a-day plant on the island, ordered all the necessary spares and equipment to get it running. Again, we're planning or the Easter peak. We're also looking at putting another plant to the north in the short-to-medium term. We've been communicating with the minister and area rep about trying to get land on the north, both for water and for a possible future sewage system. I'll talk about sewage in a little bit."
Email
Print