Residents urged to purify stored water, steer clear of wells
Chief Environmental Officer Lionel Michael
With an increased dependency on stored water in the territory, residents are being urged to purify water before use.
Chief Environmental Health Officer Lionel Michael told BVI News in a recent interview, it is of absolute importance to make water from cisterns and tanks safe before consumption.
“The BVI has tremendous water storage capacity in cisterns and tanks – hundreds of thousands of gallons if you add them up – which is a very good source of water. But, it should be purified.”
Michael said residents can either boil water, add chlorine or household bleach, or consider the option of installing water filters to improve water quality.
In so doing, “any microorganisms or germs that are in the water will be killed and it will be then safe to use,” he said.
Typhoid fever, malaria, diarrhoea, and cholera are some sanitation diseases related with unpurified water.
Storage capacity
Meanwhile, the Environmental Health chief said knowing the storage capacity of cisterns is another crucial part of having safe water.
Knowing how much water is stored enables persons to also know the exact amount of disinfectant required to bring it ‘up to par’, Michael said
Michael further said water in wells should be avoided until otherwise instructed.
“Because well water can be contaminated with sewerage and chemicals and all kinds of things, the public should not take undue risks when they have expert advice available in government agencies.”
He said in the event of an emergency, the various governmental agencies will go through the process of making well water suitable for drinking or bathing.
Water shortage
Late last month, Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Communication and Works Jeremy Hodge said residents should brace for periods of low, or even no water within the next few months.
He said this is as a result of several extensively damaged reservoirs currently under repairs.
During last year’s catastrophic hurricanes, at least five reservoirs located on Sabbath Hill, Fort Hill, Hannah’s Hill, Balsam Ghut and the Valley on Virgin Gorda, received varying levels of damage and are lined up to be repaired.
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AIN’T GOT NO TOLIAN WHO COULD DO THIS JOB????
What about you, get up off your a-s and go get qualified
@missing in action, you were the first out of the blocks so how did Tortolian doing the job come up. Seem like a solution looking for a problem. Nonetheless, that said the BVI has done a very poor job effectively educating and training its people with the knowledge and skills to function from Premier to non-skill worker. Unlike in other locales, self hatred, local vs local……etc is consuming the BVI and retarding its growth and development. Our ancestors were conditioned to pull each other down like crabs in a buckets, ie, house, yard and field. It has been almost 200 years since Emancipation yet the attitude persist. Every country needs population growth but it still needs to take care of locals as other other countries do.
The sentiment is agreed with. Nonetheless, the few Tolians that are here are already employed, mostly, or perhaps absent of qualifications
needed.
Secondly,there are probably a few of us who are in position(s) to be either promoted to or offered the job, but that will not occur for two main reasons:
(1) the current holder will not be reassigned to accommodate a local.
(2) Our own local will be greatly satisfied to see a non local in, and will do all to keep a local out and down…..
(3) There is a vicious, evil and victimization spirit that is alive and at work in our culture; in our administrations; in our private and public sector; in our offices, community and home, and even in our churches.
It has been there for decades, and it has reeked havoc and suffering on many.
It must be rebuked by whatever means necessary. Too many good and smart people/locals suffer to much at the evil minds and hands of our own LOCAL, and those who are aware and not part of the victimization keep their eyes peeled and mouths shut as their own are brutalized by their own..
We must, as a people, begin to treat each other with more dignity and respect. We must allow David to get what is due to him, especially if he worked for it. We must be FAIR and right and righteous with each other.
It fills many with even more sorrow when individuals who can stop and reverse the oppression and victimization refuse to do so.
If we so believe in the teachings of Christ, why do we treat our own so awfully?
We are a divided people in so many ways. Wonder why you ask that question?
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
Why is there hardly a response to the crippling legacy of the psychological bondage that still terrorizes us Locals and Black people of the globe?
Where are all those that would’ve been parading in cyber space pretending only their opinion is the right and correct one, if there were words such as “white”, “Black,” “racist,” etcc..
Notice only when truths about a certain people and their ways and history are brought to task does the site become a sounding board for their rage and denial of truth.
The issue of race is a very toxic one. Some would like not to be reminded of or talk about it, but wise minds know differently.
Clearly, some are contented as we point out our human psychological flaws and short coming, but don’t you ever speak truth about those “right and righteous” folk!