Water Hazard

Water Quality. Basic to a nation’s health is the quality of the water available to its public. When we drink a glass of water we expect that “the authorities” have ensured that it is safe to drink. I have received a number of emails recently that suggest that is not the case in Anguilla. I have gone around asking questions.

How do you know that Anguilla’s water is safe to drink? Because, it is tested at the Water Lab and the tests indicate that it is safe. But, Anguilla has no functioning water lab. We have not been able to test water in Anguilla for some years now. There is a building going up adjacent to the Environmental Health Unit near the NBA roundabout in The Valley. It is designed to be the new Water Lab, but it has not yet been handed over to government. I visited it yesterday, and there were two men working in it. At the rate that two unsupervised men usually proceed with construction, it will be many months if not years before it is ready to be commissioned.

We have a trained and qualified water technician at the EHU. She was not authorized to answer my questions about the quality of Anguilla’s water supply. So, I can only tell you what people who should know have been telling me. I hope you have a strong stomach for some of what I shall be passing on to you in the coming days. My concern is that if something is not done urgently about Anguilla’s present environmental hazards, the gastroenteritis outbreak that we experienced last year is going to be a joke in comparison to what we can expect.

It is not as if our Ministers of government are insensitive to the issues. Perhaps the loudest round of applause that greeted any of the Chief Minister’s announcements on the Park on Wednesday was for his promise that the Dolphinarium would not be permitted to be relocated to Sandy Ground. You must know that an area of the sea outside the old Mariners Hotel was to have been fenced off and turned into a dolphin cage. They would be fed there, and they would use the sea as their toilet. The Anguilla National Trust had written a well-researched and strongly worded plea against this installation. They had pointed out there had been no Environmental Impact Assessment. There had been no consultation with the residents of Sandy Ground. There had been no study of the impact on the animals of the oil, noise and traffic from the nearby cargo jetty. Unbelievably, the Planning Department had gone ahead and given planning permission. Not a soul in Sandy Ground had been consulted. No member of the swimming public knew that their beach was about to be turned into one big dolphin toilet. I have been the recipient of a surprisingly large number of astonished emails enquiring how our government could have allowed such a thing. Osborne and his ministers redeemed themselves in the eyes of many when they took this bold and correct decision to prohibit the relocation. They have some more steps they need to take in the same area of public health and welfare.