The days of residents cheating the Barbados Water Authority (BWA) via illegal connections are coming to an end.
General manager Keithroy Halliday told the DAILY NATION the BWA would soon be sending those water scammers bills for their usage.
“Yes, we can confirm there are quite a number of individuals who are not registered on our system and that is being addressed,” Halliday said following a tour of the Graeme Hall Nature Sanctuary yesterday with Prime Minister Mia Mottley, Members of Parliament and other stakeholders.
“So very soon, those folks will be billed in accordance to how the other customers are being billed as well.”
Halliday said the BWA had done surveys and cross-referenced with their database over the last year.
The authority would be confirming how many people were illegally tapping into its network once it conferred with the new Minister of Water Resources Wilfred Abrahams, Halliday added.
Two months ago, the MIDWEEK NATION reported there were about 2 300 properties in the sewage-affected areas on the South Coast which were not accounted for in the BWA’s records.
This information was gleaned from former water quality consultant and current manager of the Waste Water Division, Patricia Inniss’ 2016 Proposal For The Recovery Of Barbados’ Failing Sewerage System.
Former Minister of Water Resource Management Dr David Estwick also spoke to the matter in February during a press conference at the Ministry of Agriculture.
“If there are illicit connections, I am going to tell the general manager responsible for the Barbados Water Authority, and his manager responsible for the wastewater, [to] prosecute those people that have those illegal connections and are doing foolishness,” Estwick said. (AD)
