Thursday, March 28, 2024

Dirty water washing away sales

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STALL?owners and commuters who use the Nursery Drive route taxi terminal, want to know when the Barbados Water Authority (BWA) will fix a burst main which has been causing a huge pool of dirty water to settle in the area for the past three months.
A section of the terminal which is heavily used by thousands of commuters daily has been almost impassable because it is always flooded.
Several stall owners complained that the situation had caused them to lose sales because their stalls were literally surrounded by water and customers were not coming. Commuters on the other hand said they were tired of jumping and hopping over the water; a few complained that they had even slipped and fallen.
Stall owner David Linton said he had called the BWA on several occasions, had spoken to management of the terminal and had even complained to Patrick Todd, the former MP for The City, about the situation.
Every morning he and two other men arm themselves with brooms and attempt to sweep away some of the water but it is almost a futile exercise because water still settles.
Pointing to several pallets in front of his stall, Linton said he had placed them there for pedestrians to walk on.
“I sweep it off so that persons who get out of the vans could walk down here safely but as you can see the water is still here,”?he said.
“I saw some men from the (BWA) passing through here last month and I?spoke to them about the problem and they told me they did not have a jack hammer. Sometimes it is so bad that I don’t even feel like coming out here to work.”
Anthony Rouse, who operates next to Linton, also complained that his business was down.
He has to stand on a pallet and serve his customers because the water settles inside his stall and he lamented that the few customers who still come to him are upset because the benches which are provided for them to sit on were also surrounded by water.
“Only today [Wednesday] some workers from the Barbados Water Authority come out here and say they did not have a compressor to work with yet still I see a water works truck pass through here with a compressor.
“Nuff people does refuse to come and buy from the vendors because of this water. Only my bona fide customers still coming. But this is a very bad situation because a lot of tourists does pass through here too and they have to be walking through this dirty water,” he lamented.
“I fell down in it. My cellphone drop in the water. This has mash up my business. It real dread. I?want to know what the problem is that they can’t get it fixed,” he said.
A woman who also operates a stall in the area but who did not want to give her name, said while she appreciated the people who were sweeping the water, it had affected her since she had caught a germ in her face after some of the water splashed on her.
“This is causing big fights out here between the vendors. The man that sweeps the water is doing a good job but it is affecting my health. I have an 8×8 stall and I have to make it smaller because the water is always coming in. This is very unsanitary and unhealthy especially for the people who have to work in here.
When contacted Joy-Ann Haigh, communications specialist at the BWA, said a report was made to BWA about the matter on Wednesday. She explained that a 1½-inch main, coming from the Ministry of Education on Constitution Road, was damaged, causing the water to flow into the route taxi stand.  
“We apologize for the inconvenience caused to the vendors and it will be fixed immediately,” Haigh said.
 
* mariabradshaw@nationnews.com

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