News

The construction of the five hundred thousand gallon water storage tank at Morne Bruce is nearing completion with an estimated completion date set for the end of May 2012.

The four million dollar project which was funded by the government of Dominica is expected to improve the water supply system for the city of Roseau and environs including the lower parts of Kings Hill as well as to provide water for the Windsor Park Sports Stadium and a supply for the sale of bulk water to cruise ships.  The Contractor ACE engineering has been working on the project for the past year.

General Manager of the Dominica Water and Sewerage Company Ltd (Dowasco), Bernard Etinoffe confirmed this on Monday during an interview with GIS news.

“What is happening now is basically the sealing of the side of the tank and then some work on the outside has to be done.  It should take a few days to complete this five hundred thousand gallon storage tank…  It’s divided into three chambers, one of which can be dedicated to the Windsor Park Sports Stadium; one can be dedicated to the cruise ships so that when we are feeding the cruise ships or when there’s an activity in the stadium utilizing large volumes of water the people in Kings Hill and Morne Bruce and Roseau will not suffer from water shortages.  In the past what you found was that we could not serve ships sometimes because if we did that persons would not have water, so with this much needed storage we can expect much improvement in the water supply to Roseau and environs, Kings Hill, lower Morne Bruce and the Stadium.  The storage tank has the capacity to serve for probably two days or so in the event that there is something happening at the intake.”

The Dowasco official accompanied the Minister responsible for Water Resource Management, Hon. Reginald Austrie on a tour of the project site in May to view the status of the work done thus far.

Chief Engineer at Dowasco, Magnus Williams explained what the new system involves.

“Each chamber requires a separate outlet and distribution pipes.  The pipes for each of these chambers are interconnected in the event that we want to supply water from one pipe to another area so various valves have to be installed so that we can [achieve} that particular isolation. Also we’re required to place valves on the supply lines.  They are what we call float valves.  They will be used to control the tanks and shut off the supply when tanks are filled.  [There] are pipes to control the overflow and for emptying and washing out the tanks.  These pipes are also interconnected.  They go to the concrete chamber and then through a washout line.  Two pipes were installed, one for Bath Road and the other to the Botanic Gardens.  One is a direct connection to a bulk water line so we can serve water to the cruise ships.”

The Morne Bruce storage tank will be fed from the treatment facility in Antrim from the main intake in Springfield.

Meantime, Minister for Water Resource Management, Hon. Reginald Austrie says the completion of the tank will mark a major milestone in government’s attempts to make potable water available to all Dominicans within the next two to three years.

“Government has been spending quite a bit of money in terms of new and improved water systems.  To date I can tell you, we’ve spent over fifteen million dollars on improving and [upgrading] water systems all across the country.  Campbell, Warner, Delice and Petite Savanne all have improved water systems.  Right now we’re in the final [stages] of completing Penville’s [and] Concorde’s [water system], the West Coast Water supply project in currently ongoing right now.”