ST. JOHN’S, Antigua, June 19th, 2020 – The recent drought conditions have caused a severe reduction in the availability of water from surface and ground water sources. There has been an eleven (11) percent decrease in water treatment from natural catchments over the period of five (5) months. With strategic investment in reverse osmosis, APUA maintains its average water production through reverse osmosis at 6.4 million gallons daily. Under ideal circumstances, both reverse osmosis and natural catchments combined satisfies the nation’s demand for the provision of consistent water service. In light of the decline and to ensure the equitable distribution of water, APUA officially introduces a water conservation schedule for challenged areas.
In a press release issued last week, Thursday June 11th, 2020, the Authority announced that it has initiated the implementation of a water conservation schedule. Following the initiation process, the APUA team is satisfied with the effectiveness and efficiency of the schedule and has launched a public release to its customers today, Friday June 19th 2020.
The schedule has been designed to allow for a fair rotation cycle which gives a suitable opportunity for residents to plan and consume the service accordingly. APUA wishes to advise customers that the scheduled distribution of water can be interrupted by planned and unplanned maintenance exercises.
APUA, like many other territories around the world to include St. Lucia, Grenada, Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago and even further abroad in the United States, has resorted to the introduction of water conservation schedules or legislatorial restrictions on water usage in an attempt to mitigate the impact of drought. APUA will continue to monitor the drought conditions and water production and distribution will increase or decrease accordingly.
Consumers are reminded of the importance of practising conservation and water recycling measures in homes and businesses to prolong a limited and precious resource. The challenge to combat the effects of drought is mighty but can be overcome. Together, it is our collective responsibility to be efficient in our conservation practices as producer and consumers.
Customers can access copies of the 2020 Water Conservation Schedule in the local newspapers this weekend and into early next week, on social media, on APUA’s Website at www.apua.ag and by calling APUA’s Information Centre at 211. The schedule has also been made available to all media houses.
The APUA Water Business Unit recognizes the importance of this critical resource reaching all its customers and will be adding two (2) plants in 2021 that will increase the production capacity through reverse osmosis by an additional 900,000 gallons daily to meet this goal.
