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Basseterre, St. Kitts (SKNIS): Minister of Public Infrastructure, Energy and Utilities et al, the Honourable Konris Maynard during his presentation in Parliament on June 12 gave an update on the water situation on St. Kitts.

He stated that BEAD technology has located an underground source of water, which if successful through the drilling of a well, will generate about 500,000 gallons of water per day and 15 million gallons per month.

“This will directly affect not only the Cayon and the surrounding communities but also the St. Peter’s community because at present the water that we capture from rain that has been reduced by 40 percent is shared between the St. Peter’s and Cayon area.”

The Minister continued, “If we are able to get the well in Cayon done and it is close to the 500,000 gallons per day, then we can divert all the water to St. Peter’s that usually shares between Cayon and St. Peter’s.”

Honourable Maynard emphasized the Government’s commitment to solving and resolving the issue related to water and stated that “plans are in play.”

He added also that the Federation is experiencing a drought.

“We get the overwhelming majority of our water from rainfall, and I am advised that for the first five months of the year January to May, we have received just about 60 percent of the normal rainfall for the same period in previous years,” Minister Maynard said.

As such, the government has employed short-term solutions to the problem.

He said, “We are now adding about 4.6 million gallons per month or about 150,000 gallons per day of desalinated water to our system via the arrangement with Royal Utilities St. Kitts, who by the way provides water services to the Marriott hotel.”

“We hope to in the next two weeks to four weeks increase that to about four thousand gallons of desalinated water per day of or about 12 million gallons per month,” said the Minister of Public Infrastructure, Hon. Konris Maynard.