By Tamesha Doughty on Monday, 11 April, 2022 at 09:14 PM

As emergency work continues at the Belle Pumping Station for the second consecutive day, Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley has appealed to the public for patience.  

This emergency work, which commenced yesterday from 7:30 a.m., is being conducted on a section of the pumping station that is in danger of collapsing.

Prime Minister Mottley indicated that the infrastructure at the pumping station needed to be replaced urgently. 

She made the comments after viewing the progress of emergency work with Senior Minister with responsibility for infrastructure, Dr. William Duguid, and officials of the Barbados Water Authority (BWA).

“…We hope that we can do what we have to do here because we couldn’t take any further delays in ensuring that we deal with this matter, because if that pump fell in through that platform, then we would be losing a pump and we would be using far more time than two or three days,” she said.

One-third of the country, Prime Minister Mottley added, relies on the Belle Pumping Station, as she indicated the scale of the problem at the station.

“We ask the public of Barbados to be patient with us because what we’re doing is replacing ageing infrastructure that is older than all of us and to that extent therefore, it is essential that we do it also from an occupational health and safety perspective,” she stressed.

The Belle Pumping Station pumps approximately nine million gallons of water per day, but has been pumping at a reduced capacity of seven million gallons.