Published 24 March 2022
Basseterre
Buckie Got It, St. Kitts and Nevis News Source
WATER SERVICES DEPARTMENT TO EXTEND WATER DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS TO 20 ADDITIONAL AREAS IN 2022
Basseterre, St. Kitts, March 24, 2022 (SKNIS): Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Infrastructure, the Honourable Shawn Richards, said the St. Kitts Water Services Department is expected to extend the water distribution to over twenty additional areas this year.
Minister Richards in his World Water Day 2022 address on March 22 said that “A robust and resilient water infrastructure is fundamental to the sustainable development of our nation.”
He added that “The Government is committed to allocating the necessary resources to ensure that every household and business in St. Kitts has twenty-four hour access to a safe and adequate supply of potable water.”
Deputy Prime Minister Richards also said, “With the assistance of the Ministries of Finance and Sustainable Development, other investments in our water infrastructure also include drilling of additional wells, replacement and upgrading of pipelines, construction of new, and expansion of existing storage reservoirs, the use of modern technology to improve efficiency and to optimize the use of our resources.”
He also mentioned that the current institutional capacity and structure of the Water Services Department is currently being reviewed to assess whether it would be beneficial to convert the Department to a Statutory Entity.
He also said, “We recognize that water is a basic necessity for hygiene and sanitation and as such must always be affordable to even the poorest amongst us. However, while we subsidize the poor, we must ensure that those who can afford to, pay an equitable rate to ensure that we recover the cost of providing the service. To this end, we would continue to review and assess the water tariff. The last increase in our water tariff was some 21 years ago (2001).”
