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(CNS): The Water Authority said it has been able to increase the production of water over the last week to meet the growing demand on Cayman Brac, and its supply is now catching up with that demand. While water production has almost reached full capacity, the WA is nevertheless asking customers to continue to preserve water.
Responding to a freedom of information request by Loop, the WA said the recent shortage was due to an increase in development on the island, a rise in tourists post-COVID and the seasonal dry season. In addition, there could be a number of leaks within its distribution network as well as in customer service lines and cisterns.
By December, the amount of water stored at the facility on the Brac fell from an average of 80.5% of full capacity to an average of 45.1%.
Water production was increased from 143,522 US gallons per day in November to 175,329 gallons per day by March. Average daily sales increased from under 85,000 gallons in December to over 131,000 in January, reflecting the reality of the demand the authority faced.
In a release issued on Monday, the WA confirmed that the improved performance meant reservoir storage levels had increased. Officials said they were cautiously returning to normal service for truck customers and that the waiting time had dropped from as much as a week last month to around one day.
“We have seen many of our Cayman Brac customers adjust their water habits over the past couple of weeks in response to our request to conserve,” said WA Director Dr Gelia Frederick van Genderen, who thanked customers, especially those using trucked water “for their continued efforts to use water wisely”.
Given that the demand is likely to increase as Cayman Brac sees more development, the WA has said that there is little it can do to reduce demand, so it must increase supply, and work is going on to help it do that.
“We are implementing a more formalised leak detection programme to identify any leaks that exist within our network and repair these,” officials said. “We are also implementing a series of measures aimed at improving the efficiency of our pumping facilities so that pressure in the network can be managed more effectively, particularly at night time when demand on the system is much lower.”
Officials said new membranes are being installed at the reverse osmosis plant, which will improve the daily output in the short term. “We also plan to add an additional train to the reverse osmosis plant that will meet and exceed the current demand.”
The WA said that this should ensure adequate capacity to meet growth over the coming two to three years until the new water treatment plant on the Bluff site is commissioned.
See tables provided by WA below:
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