The government Friday announced that it has successfully found potable water at drilling site in Cayon, a town on the northeast coast of the twin island Federation.
“I am happy to report that we have found potable water that meets the World Health Organization standards, but more importantly, our initial assessment of the capacity of the well is suggesting that we can get from 700,000 to one million gallons a day from that well,” said Public Infrastructure Minister, Konris Maynard.
He told a town hall meeting that the government “has moved Cayon from the back of the line in water to first in line in water for the next 10 years.
“Because we are so committed to that effort and we have extended our resources and skillset to that effort, we were behind the developers who were previously engaged eight years ago, and we did not relent in our pursuit to solve the issue here in Cayon,” he added.
The government said that the Bedrock Exploration Development Technologies (BEAD) St. Kitts Limited identified water in the Cayon area and completed the drilling process a few weeks ago.
The authorities here said that the newly found source of portable water will not only service Cayon but the surrounding communities including Keys, Canada, Molineux and Phillips area.
Earlier this year, Prime Minister Dr. Terrance Drew said that the Procurement Board had approved a two million-gallon desalination plant that will cost between EC$10-14 million (One EC dollar=US$0.37 cents), saying “those two million gallons will help us to resolve a lot of our issues with water”.
St. Kitts – Nevis is considered a water scarce country based on the UN definition of countries with less than 1000 cubic meters (220,000 gallons) per capita of renewable water resources a year.
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, Sept 8, CMC