Community
New MinisterVisits Cayman Islands Water Authority
OperationsManager Thomas Hill demonstrates the computerised monitoring system.
While noting that governments are "expectedto pick up the slack and provide essential services to the country,even those which do not generate financial profits," thenew Minister responsible for the Water Authority, Dr. the Hon.Frank McField, expressed particular pleasure at the track recordof the Cayman Islands Water Authority.
During a visit last week, the Minister andPermanent Secretary Carson Ebanks, JP, were hosted by Water AuthorityDirector Gelia Frederick-Van Genderen and Deputy Director GloriaGlidden. The officials visited the main Red Gate offices, metsome of the 88 staff and discussed current issues and plans forthe authority.
The Water Authority has over 8,500 customerson the piped water distribution system, with service extendingfrom Delworth's Esso in George Town to within the East End district.Water is produced by desalination utilizing the reverse osmosisprocess and received by customers via the piped distribution system.In Grand Cayman, two reverse osmosis plants operated by OceanConversion (Cayman) Ltd, one in George Town and one in Lower Valley,supply the Authority with water. Water is stored in five storagereservoirs, three in George Town with a total capacity of 3.2million US gallons and two in Lower Valley with a total capacityof 3 million US gallons.
In Cayman Brac, water pipeline distributionservice is limited to West End. The Brac operations utilize asmall reverse osmosis plant with a production capacity of 61,000US gallons per day, and water storage capacity is presently 0.75million US gallons. The Authority also operates a trucking servicefor customers outside the pipeline distribution area on CaymanBrac.
Another aspect of the Authority's functionsis the provision of sewerage services along the West Bay Road.Domestic wastewater is collected through the Authority's undergroundpipe network system and pumped to the wastewater treatment siteat the end of Seymour Road. The Authority has over 270 seweragecustomers, encompassing major hotels and condominiums as wellas residential and commercial customers.
Two major projects are planned for the newyear. They are the construction of a new reverse osmosis plantin George Town and a wastewater treatment plant.
The existing wastewater plant is now atcapacity. The new sequencing batch reactor plant will be ableto treat 2.5 million gallons of wastewater per day, with provisionfor expansion to 10 million gallons per day. Based on currentgrowth predictions this should be sufficient to meet the demandsfor wastewater treatment for the entire island of Grand Caymanover the next 15 to 20 years.
Dr McField noted that this multi-milliondollar project should also stimulate the economy and provide jobs."In addition to the efficiency of the statutory authoritiesas semi-autonomous, they are able to carry out capital projectswith more flexibility than government usually allows, and oftenat less cost," added the Minister.
The new reverse osmosis plant will havea production capacity of 0.8 million gallons per day desalinatedwater with the option of doubling the capacity in the future ifneeded. Ocean Conversion (Cayman) Ltd, a locally based company,will design, build and operate the new plant that will be locatedat the Authority's Red Gate Water Works in George Town.