The public water service has been partially restored on Jost Van Dyke, according to a Water and Sewerage Department (WSD) official, after it was shut down on Saturday February 16 because of water quality issues.

On Monday, WSD cleaned the 450,000-gallon reservoir on Jost Van Dyke. The water system was kept off-line until water levels were ‘at a manageable point’ on Wednesday February 20, according to a WSD press release. Julian Willock, WSD manager, said water will be rationed for the time being. He said this means there will be periodic interruptions to water service for Jost Van Dyke customers.   “The [water] plant is too small,” said Greg Callwood, a Jost Van Dyke resident. “Why does it take two years to order a new one? We are constantly running out of water, so they have to hire a barge with trucks to put water into the reservoir.”

Water shortages are nothing new to the residents of Jost Van Dyke. Because of increases in the population and the number of tourists that visit the island, the 10,000- gallon-per-day plant cannot keep up with demand, according to Billy Leverett, General Manager of Ocean Conversion the company who runs the Jost Van Dyke desalination plant.

Ocean Conversion has a signed contract with the Government for a desalination plant five times the size of the current plant, he said. Though there is a dispute as to the reason the plant’s construction has been delayed, Leverett said the design is complete and some of the equipment for the plant has already arrived in the Territory.

“It’s [the new plant] in process, and hopefully it’ll be finished in the near future,” Leverett said. “. . . things are looking up and we are moving forward.”

Callwood and other residents said the reason the water system was shut down was because the reservoir water was contaminated with diesel fuel, a charge Willock denied.

The WSD manager thanked the residents of Jost Van Dyke for their patience as the water service is returned to normal, and said water quality is the most important consideration for WSD.

Callwood said it is a waste of money to bring a barge-load of water to Jost Van Dyke and then pay for trucks to dump it into the reservoir. Part of the problem, Callwood said, is that the road the trucks have to climb to the reservoir is not paved, making the process even more difficult.

The lack of water has been a hardship for residents and tourists on Jost Van Dyke, including those staying at his guesthouse there, Callwood said.

The public bathrooms in Great Harbour were a mess during the water shutdown, and no Government official has been sent to the island to hear their complaints or answer questions about the situation. Some people made do with cistern water, but there is not enough rain there to last more than a few days, Callwood said.

Bottled water has been the only choice for some, while he said his father Foxy Callwood took his fate in his hands before the recent shutdown and bought his own desalination plant.

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