WATER RELIEF – Grenadians send more than 1 400 cases of water to St. Vincent

By Linda Straker

Within 24 hours of making the plea for water from St. Vincent’s disaster management agency, hundreds of bottles of water were loaded unto the MV Gondola at Port St. George and headed there as Grenadian companies and indi-viduals willingly came forward to assist.

Water has become a scarce commodity following the trough that released rainfall on the island from December 24 to 25, causing widespread flooding throughout the island. Because the region is out of the official hurricane season, the trough which was located over the Windward Islands released lots of rain in both low and high elevations that caused rivers to burst their banks, surprising unprepared citizens.

Cases of water leaving Grenada for St. Vincent.
(Photo: Orlando K. Romain)

Grenada received almost two inches of rainfall, but suffered no major damages, while the islands of St. Lucia, St. Vincent and Dominica had major landslides, flooding, death and missing persons. Angus Steele, the Country Manager for LIME Grenada, spearheaded the efforts that not only resulted in water donations sent via the MV Gondola, but fuel contributed by GRENLEC and 12-inch pipes contributed by NAWASA.

“The water was over 1 400 cases and the bulk water from NAWASA around 31 000 gallons,” said Steele, who worked for four years in St. Vincent as LIME Country Manager and accompanied the boat on its trip to St. Vincent.

“This is now the first time I’ve seen St. Vincent suffer badly from water,” said Steele, who recalled the 2011 experience when there was a flood that affected mainly the north of the island.

News reports out of St. Vincent said that the preliminary estimates are that EC$150 million will be needed to repair and build back the damaged infrastructure, Dominica needs EC$45 million, while the figure is not yet released for St. Lucia.