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Basseterre, St. Kitts, March 21, 2018 (SKNIS): Residents of St. Kitts may want to take a second look at their pocket books before purchasing that next bottle of purified water.

 

Water Engineer and Manager of the St. Kitts Water Services Department (WSD), T. Dennison Paul, said that tap water on the island is just as safe to drink as bottled water, and in fact is the better option.

 

“You may still have it (bottled water), but I can guarantee you that the quality of the public drinking water is as good as and exceeds bottled water,” he said on Wednesday’s (March 21) edition of the radio and television programme “Working for You.”

 

To reinforce his point, Mr. Paul cited key aspects in providing potable water to the public. 

 

The first is chlorination, which the water manager said is being done with added protection in mind.

 

“When we chlorinate the water supply, what we do [is] kill all of the contaminants, the microorganisms in that body of water. We have what we call a residue, a little bit extra, and that is for when it is travelling along the pipelines. When you drink from a dirty glass that extra chlorine is supposed to handle that. If you leave your bottle of (tap) water outside and it gets contaminated by something flying into it that chlorine will take care of that.”

 

The second point raised was the nutrients found in ground water, which the water engineer said was a bit heavier than surface water and tasted different. This is because it contains magnesium, calcium, and carbonate, which help to develop strong bones and teeth.

 

“The taste is not very appealing but the water is of good quality and we abide by World Health Organization standards as to what the constituents should be in our water,” Mr. Paul said, adding that if bottled water is not properly monitored and too much of the aforementioned minerals are extracted from the water, it can create a health concern.

 

He gave credit to the crews from the WSD who make the daily journey into the hills and other sites to clean the water intake system to preserve the good public health standard of the tap water.