The government of Antigua and Barbuda is in talks with a desalination business based in Trinidad and Tobago to provide water as it works to alleviate the shortage, but it is not purchasing water from Trinidad and Tobago, as some media headlines claim.
When Guardian Media contacted Antiguan government authorities yesterday, a senior official said, “Governments sell water?”
Two Antiguan government officials revealed to Guardian Media that they are now in contact with desalination company Seven Seas Water Group, which is located in the United States but operates a plant near Point Fortin, to address their water issues.
Kennedy Lord, the local plant manager, did not respond to Guardian Media’s request for comment.
Because the transaction is private, the T&T government is not involved.
During a radio interview, Prime Minister Gaston Browne stated that his government was considering purchasing water from the Antiguan company Caribbean Water Treatment.
However, the announcement sparked headlines such as “Antigua hints at purchasing water from Trinidad,” which raised eyebrows in Antigua, Trinidad and Tobago, which has its own water issues, and even Dominica, where residents expressed confusion about why Browne would bypass the island’s resources and look elsewhere, according to local media.
According to the United Nations, Antigua and Barbuda is one of the Caribbean’s most water-stressed countries.
Browne, on the other hand, has been outspoken about his dissatisfaction with the operation of the Antigua Public Utilities Authority (APUA).
Ambassador Lionel Hurst, Chief of Staff in the Prime Minister’s Office, revealed a change in management at yesterday’s post-Cabinet media briefing.
“In Antigua and Barbuda, we’ve had a lot of trouble getting enough water to our clients, our customers,” Hurst said.
“The Cabinet is of the view that the same high standard to which our elected members and the Cabinet of Antigua and Barbuda are held that it ought to apply to management of the APUA so it has instructed the Cabinet secretary to write to the general manager of APUA instructing him to go on pre-retirement leave and to continue to make himself available to the APUA at some point,” he said.
