DOWASCO said heavy rainfall forced the shutdown of its Springfield water intake, causing temporary water supply disruptions in several communities.
Dominica: The Dominica Water and Sewerage Company Limited (DOWASCO) has linked the water supply challenges experienced in different communities to heavy rainfall in Dominica which has, according to the water company, had caused them to shut down the water systems.
This information was shared by DOWASCO’s Public Relations Officer, Kimani St. Jean, during a television broadcast. In her address, Kimani Jean informer the general public that the disruption in their water supply has been caused by the recent heavy rainfall experienced over the past few days.
She explained that the heavy rainfall would have affected the water intake for Water Area 1, resulting in clogging and equipment damage as well as contamination of the water, hence the shutdown of the water system. Located at Springfield, when shut down, all communities in that area, especially those in elevated areas experienced a supply interruption for a couple of hours.
We experienced heavy rainfall in Dominica over the past few days where our intake for water area one that is in Springfield had to be shut down so that turbid water does not get into storage. And so, water area one was shut down for a few hours on Monday and that caused an interruption in the communities especially elevated communities, explained the PRO.
The officer informed the public that the water system has now been reopened and that DOWASCO is waiting for the tanks to refill and for the network to balance in order to resume its services.
DOWASCO’s PRO reaffirmed the company’s commitment to serving the citizens of Dominica, stating that DOWASCO does its best to ensure the consumers have access to water, however, at times there are external factors beyond the company’s control that hinders it from providing services.
Explaining all this, Jean went on to encourage the citizens of Dominica to practice water storage as a relief exercise in circumstances such as these, stating that it will benefit them when an emergency occurs.
“We want to encourage people to store water habitually. Store water not only in the rainy season, not only in the hurricane season, but as a habit because resilience starts at the home level and the business level. And so, we want to really encourage persons to always have water in storage for emergency use because we never know what may happen,” she encouraged the citizens.