Bring in outside experts to fix water system — Skelton Cline

Talk show host Claude Skelton Cline has urged the government to recruit outside experts to overhaul the territory’s water and sewerage system, arguing that the longstanding problems require specialised skills and a structured transfer of knowledge to local workers.

“We are not getting this thing handled,” Skelton Cline stated during his Honestly Speaking programme.

He called on the government to retain an experienced firm or team capable of addressing the system’s problems comprehensively.

“You have to go and find an entity, some persons somewhere that you’re going to retain their services to come in here,” Skelton Cline stated.

The commentator said the government should recruit the required expertise from any suitable jurisdiction.

“Go to China if you have to. I don’t care where you go,” Skelton Cline stated.

He stressed that bringing in outside specialists should not displace Water and Sewerage Department employees. Instead, the experts should work alongside local staff and provide the training Virgin Islanders need to eventually manage an improved system.

“We need persons at a level, a systemic level with the requisite skill sets where we can woman and man the place alongside our people because there must be no loss of employment by our people,” Skelton Cline stated.

He proposed a gradual withdrawal of the external team once local workers had received sufficient training and could take control of the upgraded operation.

Skelton Cline also questioned the territory’s water-production arrangements. He said the government pays approximately $1.2 million monthly under a contract for a plant with the capacity to produce 2.3 million gallons of water daily.

According to Skelton Cline, the contract has not produced the agreed volume of water, and the territory neither needs nor has the hydraulic facilities to process this quantity.

Communication and Works Minister Kye Rymer previously said the agreement includes separate capacity, consumption and electricity charges. He explained that the capacity charge covers operating and maintaining a plant capable of producing at least 2.3 million gallons daily, while the government pays a consumption charge for the water it receives.

The government announced in May 2025 that a consortium of engineers and technicians would assess the territory’s water infrastructure, including its pipelines and pressure-management requirements. Rymer also said funding had been allocated to begin repairing seven leaking reservoirs.

Skelton Cline said the intervention must produce “a proper system, a more efficient system”, supported by continuous training and an eventual transfer of responsibility to local personnel.