Drought fuels water demand on Cayman Brac
(CNS): A sustained period of dry weather and a decline in the water table on Cayman Brac appears to have caused a water shortage on the island that has led to unprecedented demand and has backed up deliveries for more than a week. Because of the increase in demand, over the past two to three months the Water Authority has had to make the “difficult decision of limiting a trucked water order quantity to 2000 gallons” to manage supply, the WA said in a release.
“This limitation will allow the Authority to ensure that all trucked water customers are able to be provided with water, albeit less than their normal order amount,” officials said in a press release.
“Customers can be reassured that the Authority’s staff are diligently working to ensure that improved production capacity is able to meet the unprecedented demand for water currently being experienced. Both piped water and trucked water customers are encouraged to be conservative with their water usage where possible and to check for leaks while the WA is increasing production.
Many houses on the island have cistern tanks or above-ground black water tanks for general use and may also use well water for some or all of their water uses, relying on trucked water to top up their supply when it gets low.
“A short-term solution to increase water production capacity at the West End site is being worked on,” officials said, noting that the delivery limit would allow them to get water to all the truck customers, albeit less than their normal orders. “While it is expected that this limitation will be short-lived and service will soon be back to normal, until such time, all customers are urged to use only what they need, for example, do not waste and conserve where possible.”
Customers are asked to periodically check their plumbing, and if storage tanks are being used, these should also be checked. All such leaks identified should be urgently repaired.
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Category: Local News, Utilities
Can we just get an intelligent answer? We haven’t had any major increase in our population so how is there an unprecedented demand? It’s the same 1,800 people using the same amount of water. Doesn’t matter if it’s trucked or piped!
Water Authority Board and management need to resign. They have no foresight or ability to run the organization with people who have never been successful at anything really.
Play politics but not with our lives!
Successful people with actual people/persons who LIVE on the Brac must be on the board!
Seems unfair that people who live outside of where piped water is available are rationed. Yet those with piped water can waste water all day.
((Golf courses and lawn sprinklers))
How many of either of those on the Brac?
No environmentally harmful golf courses on the Brac
Are they still trucking the 2500 gallons of fresh water DAILY to the Bluff pool that nobody uses?
No but they are to the Dart Farm!
The Brackers could try to be a little more grateful for what they have. Its all paid for by the people of grand cayman. Jet service, good roads and city water. The water authority will never get back the millions they spent on the water system in cayman brac.
Thats not how society works. Read some books.
So, it is your hypothesis that Water Authority is digging up the roadside, laying new pipe and trying to get everyone hooked up out of a sense of altruism, rather than money to be made?
It must be very special in your own little bubble of joy. Be well.
I Am so sick of these Bigot and frankly idiot mind sets of some or “OUR” people! That’s like saying East End shouldn’t be treated the same as West Bay! Ah boy.. my people.
3rd world…
Yet, here you are.
Also important to note that many houses here do not have wells and trucked water is their ONLY source of life-giving water.
Waiting a week for this precious resource is outrageous and dangerous as the days get hotter. Also the fact that we were not warned ahead of time about the situation, allowing our tanks to run out and then saying we have to wait a week. On top of that, their canned excuse is blaming it on the people, saying it is due to more demand. Yes, WAC, it is our fault that you are unable to plan ahead and communicate appropriately with the public.
They need to tell the truth. No one believes this story. People even think they’re doing this to force them to hook up to city water. We have had droughts before and we had water.
This has nothing to do with a dry period. We have dry periods every year and this doesn’t happen. This is the result of Water Authority running pipes throughout the island without the good sense to realize that hundreds of homes would connect and more water would be in demand. Now the truck water customers have to punish. A little foresight of the water capacity before the pipe project would’ve made better sense. BTW, any qualified people on this board?
Check with the brackas on the board
Ask Wayne’s personal appointee.
https://www.waterauthority.ky/upimages/pagebox/WACBoard20232024_FebruaryUpdate_1676397723.pdf
Useless
Grand in the same boat with water and sewer, but its hidden in plain sight.
Quite a bit of sewer work at BK on WBR and now further west for days.
It’s a shitty job but someone has to do it.
Yup, sea is all around us. And in their infinite wisdom Water Authority is unable to figure out how to produce more water …. knowing that the piped water project would last for years and knowing that water is critical.
Senior Management at the Water Authority, the Board and the Ministry have all allowed this to happen……and our beloved Premier is bragging about $1 Billion in Revenue.
We have the Deputy Premier on island and one of the wealthiest opposition politicians – who combined have allowed this fiasco to happen.
Prior planning prevents poor performance.
Lets see some Results and not excuses.
And in your infinite wisdom as an armchair reverse osmosis expert, you fail to understand that ground water is more suitable for reverse osmosis than seawater which comes with horrible efficiency.
Yes bobo ground water better than sea water. But when you dont have any water at all why not use reverse osmosis for seawater. . . oh I know because the brackers would drain the sea.
My whole point yesterday is that it was the complete lack of planning that caused this issue.
Government has the money, so get the water situation sorted out. Period. End of Story.
You really don’t understand how R.O. works. It is a series of integrated filters. Salt-saturated water requires FAR more power, time and resources to make potable water than from the West End water lens which Water Authority currently uses. So much more intensive that distillation of seawater is much more efficient, however slower it is.
If your ‘simple solutions’ were really true, there would be NO water shortages anywhere in the world.
The remainder of your points, are valid.
https://www.water-technology.net/news/newsresearchers-find-saline-groundwater-better-water-source-seawater-4829300/
https://www.waterworld.com/home/article/16202625/saline-groundwater-better-option-for-desalination-finds-study
Easy to criticize people from behind a keyboard, eh?
“…and a decline in the water table on Cayman Brac appears to have caused a water shortage on the island.” There is no such thing as a decline in a water table in the Cayman Islands. What can happen is that wells that tap into the islands’ various fresh-water lenses on Grand (including the small one on the Brac at Tibbetts’ Turn) if overused, depletes the thin layer of fresh water sitting on top of the saline water that approximates the ocean water level resulting in the well water turning brackish and non-potable.
WAC should clarify whether this is the case and to explain why their reverse-osmosis seawater purification systems cannot meet the demand for water on the Brac. Does this mean that the other source of water is the Tibbetts’ Turn lens?
WAC needs to avoid bs explanations when attempting to excuse a potential shortage of a critical resource such as potable water…
Amen. Straight to the point.