The rainy season has not brought any relief with drought conditions for the National Water and Sewerage Authority (NAWASA), as four water systems continue to record an over 50% reduction in water intake.<\/p>\n
The harshness of an extended dry season in the midst of what should be the hurricane or
\nrainy season is proving to be a major challenge for the Authority, with significantly reduced water supply entering the dams, testing the ability to provide a consistent supply and forcing the reinstituting of valve regulation.
\n\u201cFor now, it\u2019s as though we are in the dry season once again\u201d says Ernest Bruno, Asst.
\nManager of the Transmission and Distribution Department, \u201cas everyone can see, the rainfall has almost stopped.<\/p>\n
It means that our source is very depleted and as a result we are trying to
\nequitably distribute water; in the best way possible\u201d.
\nMr. Bruno asserts that \u201cwhat we don\u2019t want, is for one set of customers to have water seven day a week, while others complain of not having water for extended periods\u201d.<\/p>\n
As a direct result, four of the Authority\u2019s water systems; Les Avocat, Annandale, Mardigras and Bon Accord are under regulation. The Les Avocat dam is hardest hit recording a reduction in intake of more than 50%.<\/p>\n
Junior Morain, Plant Supervisor in the Production and Quality Department explains that the dam has a production capacity of three hundred thousand (300,000) gallons per day but with diminishing rainfall, that has dropped significantly to approximately one hundred and ninety (190,000). \u201cSo, unless we get some rains in the coming weeks, the challenge will become much stiffer\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
The Caribbean Climate Outlook bulletin September to November, identifies Grenada as
\namong countries in the region where long term drought might possibly develop, consumers\u00a0 are again being encouraged to invest in some form of storage and conserve as much as possible. \u201cCustomers have to know that they too have to assist us; so, the various conservation methods must be used. As I said before, this is like the dry season\u201d, says Mr. Bruno.<\/p>\n
Consumers are reminded of the Authority\u2019s continued calls to have water stored to last at
\nleast 3 days, representing 35 gallons of water, per person, per day.
\nThe Authority continues to monitor ALL water systems and their capacity to meet demand
\nand will keep affected consumers fully aware of their supply status as information becomes available.
\nIt is worth noting that although there may be spells of heavy rainfall during a given month, these tend to be few and easily overshadowed by longer periods of dry spells.
\nThe Caribbean Drought Outlook notes that the September to October peak of the Caribbean Heat Season, which runs from May to October, is likely to see a marked increase in heatwaves and the associated heat stress. Drought impacts in currently affected areas are generally expected to decrease towards November.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Authority is ensuring that mechanisms are in place to service customers who are affected for extended periods. Mr. Bruno explains that \u201cin areas where the water does not reach during valve regulation, or when water is pressed to that area, we always try to use our truck to come in and supply our customers\u201d.<\/p>\n
In addition to delivery by water truck, the Authority installed a number of storage tanks at
\nvarious locations during the last dry season, in an effort to ensure consumers have ready
\naccess to water. Mr. Bruno explains that these will be filled and made available for use by
\naffected consumers. \u201cAt NAWASA we always look forward and we hope for the best but we
\nprepare for the worst. During the dry period, we installed tanks and what we will do is we will continue to fill these tanks and ask customers to use it wisely\u201d he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The rainy season has not brought any relief with drought conditions for the National Water and Sewerage Authority (NAWASA), as four water systems continue to record an over 50% reduction in water intake. The harshness […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4220,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4219","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-local-news"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/pjimage.jpg?fit=1000%2C500&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/pjimage.jpg?fit=1000%2C500&ssl=1",1000,500,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/pjimage.jpg",1000,500,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/pjimage.jpg",1000,500,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/pjimage.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/pjimage.jpg?fit=300%2C150&ssl=1",300,150,true],"large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/pjimage.jpg?fit=1000%2C500&ssl=1",1000,500,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/pjimage.jpg?fit=1000%2C500&ssl=1",1000,500,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/pjimage.jpg?fit=1000%2C500&ssl=1",1000,500,true],"mh-magazine-slider":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/pjimage.jpg?resize=1000%2C438&ssl=1",1000,438,true],"mh-magazine-content":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/pjimage.jpg?resize=678%2C381&ssl=1",678,381,true],"mh-magazine-large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/pjimage.jpg?resize=678%2C500&ssl=1",678,500,true],"mh-magazine-medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/pjimage.jpg?resize=326%2C245&ssl=1",326,245,true],"mh-magazine-small":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/pjimage.jpg?resize=80%2C60&ssl=1",80,60,true]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"adminrfm","author_link":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/author\/adminrfm\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"Local News<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"The rainy season has not brought any relief with drought conditions for the National Water and Sewerage Authority (NAWASA), as four water systems continue to record an over 50% reduction in water intake. The harshness [...]","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4219"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4221,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4219\/revisions\/4221"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}