-WAPA Water Crisis on St. Thomas

From late December through early January, at the height of the tourist season, the public water system on St Thomas failed.

The WAPA (Water and Power Authority) water crisis on St Thomas has meant unreliable water services and water rationing through rotating services schedules to different parts of the island. The Housing Finance Authority tried to provide water trucks in communities where water service was completely unavailable. When WAPA restored regular water services, residents complained of murky water conditions.

Personally I am very concerned with the situation at hand because when running a public utility, especially a water or a light company, it’s mandatory that you keep your customers satisfied at all times. It doesn’t matter what the problem may be.

The low water pressure affected businesses and damaged the tourism industry. The public toilets and restaurants had to be shut down until the water pressure was back to normal. http://virginislandsdailynews.com/news/water-problems-costing-v-i-businesses-1.1250629#axzz1kfIC22V2.

It also affected us at Kean. On the two last days of school, December 22 and 23, 2011, the toilets couldn’t flush, and there was insufficiency water in the taps.

In some bathrooms custodians placed barrels filled with water and buckets so that children could flush the toilets. Fortunately, by the reopening of school, the water problem was fixed and the bathrooms situation was acceptable. But what if it haven’t been? How would a school with 1000 students function without water?

St. Thomas on average demands 1.8 million gallons of water per day. During the emergency WAPA produced 750,000 gallons per day via three new reverse osmosis units. “Reverse osmosis forces seawater through a dense membrane that filters the water into what becomes drinking quality water,” according to the Daily News. http://virginislandsdailynews.com/news/wapa-promises-regular-water-service-tonight-1.1254035#axzz1kfIC22V2

The problem is the WAPA’s water plants are old and break down. WAPA is having trouble borrowing enough money through bonds to buy new water production equipment. In other to borrow more money, WAPA will have to charge customers more.

Who wants to pay more? According to the article, “WAPA will request a water base rate increase in February to cover the debt.”

What can we do to conserve water at school? I think that we, the students, should not vandalize and should report vandalism when we see it. I also think that the Department of Education should fix the gutters at Kean so we can collect and conserve rain water.