Cayman Brac water production catching up
(CNS): The Water Authority said it has been able to increase the production of water over the last week to meet the growing demand on Cayman Brac, and its supply is now catching up with that demand. While water production has almost reached full capacity, the WA is nevertheless asking customers to continue to preserve water.
Responding to a freedom of information request by Loop, the WA said the recent shortage was due to an increase in development on the island, a rise in tourists post-COVID and the seasonal dry season. In addition, there could be a number of leaks within its distribution network as well as in customer service lines and cisterns.
By December, the amount of water stored at the facility on the Brac fell from an average of 80.5% of full capacity to an average of 45.1%.
Water production was increased from 143,522 US gallons per day in November to 175,329 gallons per day by March. Average daily sales increased from under 85,000 gallons in December to over 131,000 in January, reflecting the reality of the demand the authority faced.
In a release issued on Monday, the WA confirmed that the improved performance meant reservoir storage levels had increased. Officials said they were cautiously returning to normal service for truck customers and that the waiting time had dropped from as much as a week last month to around one day.
“We have seen many of our Cayman Brac customers adjust their water habits over the past couple of weeks in response to our request to conserve,” said WA Director Dr Gelia Frederick van Genderen, who thanked customers, especially those using trucked water “for their continued efforts to use water wisely”.
Given that the demand is likely to increase as Cayman Brac sees more development, the WA has said that there is little it can do to reduce demand, so it must increase supply, and work is going on to help it do that.
“We are implementing a more formalised leak detection programme to identify any leaks that exist within our network and repair these,” officials said. “We are also implementing a series of measures aimed at improving the efficiency of our pumping facilities so that pressure in the network can be managed more effectively, particularly at night time when demand on the system is much lower.”
Officials said new membranes are being installed at the reverse osmosis plant, which will improve the daily output in the short term. “We also plan to add an additional train to the reverse osmosis plant that will meet and exceed the current demand.”
The WA said that this should ensure adequate capacity to meet growth over the coming two to three years until the new water treatment plant on the Bluff site is commissioned.
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That’s nice. How are they doing on the rectification of their failing sewerage infrastructure on Grand Cayman?
The infrastructure was all cracked up from the get go. I hear they’re still using bandAids to fix it. It’s like they’ve never heard of directional drilling or HDPE pipe before, the stuff of science and engineering fiction I guess.
Duck tape and a prayer is all that’s holding it together.
How much water is being delivered each day to the govt swimming pool?
For Pete’s sake can pipes be put in as far east as to Spot Bay and Booby Point so that people can get hooked up for decent water? The Water Authority lines have only been run as far up as Watering Place! Not good enough! South Side has WA pipes run over there and they do not have as much population as Spot Bay and other north shore of the island Districts. Speak out people like Miss Lurley Scott did about Spot Bay School. Be a leader and look out for your community and Island of Cayman Brac like Keith Tibbetts, Chas. Kirkconnell and other old leaders did for progress on the Brac.
All of the Southside don’t have. Only from Fosters corner the CBBR has piped water on that side.
What is the CBBR?
Take it easy, Francis. WA plans to work all of the community of Watering Place before moving on to Creek, Northeast Bay, and Spot Bay. I am not hooked up yet either.
I think it is smart of them to saturate (pun intended) Watering Place before moving east.
Ah yes. Watering Place aka Juliana Home Town.
You think she lives there?
Yes….. part of the time.
Who cares?
South side only has pipe water as far east to Coral Isle Club .
About 7 people live past there.
Foolish comment. Certainly there is much of a population density on the north side, but the south side has hundreds of folk, and at least one very large commercial facility.
It all comes down to leadership. Slowly reactive and not proactive is how the Water Authority has been run for years.
blah, blah, blah – excuses not results. All too common with Water Authority.
Quit the blame game Water Authority. Fix the damn leaks, get RO working properly, build on other location.
As the premier brags about surplus and billion dollars of revenue- he seems to want to have his Cabinet continue to neglect one of the true essentials needed to survive -WATER.
Government spends money on all sorts of things. It is about time to get the basics done properly – WATER.
Brackers should pay the full cost of their service. Why should people in grand cayman have to subsidize their water costs and all they do is complain
Sir, you live in a society.
We do pay full price, Nimrod. In fact, a bit more than you do.
Hey , Anonymouse! Don’t show your ignorance. We pay for our water. Sometime they may need extra money and add a little extra to the bill! Ouch!
Water Authority listed every excuse in the book hoping something would resonate. I think the truth is that as more people were connected to the water mains WA did not anticipate and prepare for the increased demand that would result.
The Brac’s population is fairly static. So if you operate an RO plant and are surrounded by a sea of water, surely it can’t be too hard to make as much water as you need.
Assuming the Brac’s RO plant is fit for purpose and in working condition, what is really going on over there?
Perhaps it is just a case of Government-style business as usual, where equipment is not maintained and replacement parts are not ordered ahead of time.
With the annual billion dollar budgets, why are government departments and entities seemingly always in crisis mode?
“if you operate an RO plant and are surrounded by a sea of water, surely it can’t be too hard to make as much water as you need.”
For the 82nd time, you simply cannot pull water from the sea and perform reverse osmosis as efficiently as you can with ground water. You’d spend 4x the power for half the product. If your armchair expert solution is so obvious, why do you think that the practice was stopped decades ago?
There are ships out there carrying numbers of people 5 times the size of the Brac population. They all use RO to make water and, you will be amazed to learn, don’t have to heave to and drill deep wells.
There are ships out there doing much more than just that.
Time to call in the experts.
https://www.dnv.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-zpefxUUJU
You could also use a hand pump for RO if you absolutely needed to, but it still isn’t practical.
Yes, however the well you currently draw from in the Brac is so fouled up with biofilm that it’s essentially like drawing from the sea. Your filter bank can’t handle it. How long has this situation been developing for and who has been watching it develop?
The contingency plan should have been in place years ago to either deal with the situation or move location.
The same has happened to RO wells in Grand Cayman so the predicament is nothing new. Someone derelict in there duty caused this now deal with it!