AVOID FLOODING: Provide Free Water To Building Sites

A situation is building up whereby there could be some serious flooding in the Valley area to threaten life and property as was the case in November 1999 in the wake of Hurricane Lenny.

Recently there has been some heavy and sustained rainfall in Anguilla. This has resulted in large settlements and saturation in the central sections of the island where the water table is known to be generally high. Since then, many streams of water continue to cascade from various surrounding locations into the Valley basin following the slightest rain. The result is flooding of roads and lands as well as areas near some residences.

In previous years it was water from the Valley Well which was used for supplying most of the island. This is no longer the case, following the commissioning of the reverse osmosis plant at Crocus Bay. As a result only a very small portion of water in The Valley is being utilised, mainly for use in farmlands there. This in no way reduces significantly the apparent large supply of underground water and it has not been determined how much of this water drains down to the sea.

There are several boreholes in the area from which water can readily be extracted and there needs to be some consideration as to what use can be made of this excess water. This is not really the rainy season in Anguilla, which is expected to come later in the year, when the situation could worsen especially if there is unusual weather activity including hurricanes affecting the region. It may be a wise decision, therefore, to make a concerted effort to reduce the level of the water table to reduce the high risk of severe flooding which may occur later on if torrential showers should drench Anguilla over a long period.

The construction industry is booming around the island. One of the difficulties, especially being experienced by private persons, is the availability of inexpensive water for their concrete works. It is believed that one way to make use of this excess water could be to have it freely distributed to building sites where users pay only a transportation fee if they themselves could not provide their own trucking services. They could simply obtain a storage tank and fill it up for use as required.

With all the septic tanks flushing down into the aquifer, one cannot guarantee the purity of the water. This is perhaps one good reason for its discontinuance in the island-wide distribution system. There is insufficient agricultural and irrigation activity in the Valley area and its outskirts to considerably use up the abundance of this water.

Its use in the construction industry, as suggested, may be something to consider and embark upon.