PLM Promises Sea Cows Bay Water Supply
People's Leadership Movement leader Mark Vanterpool has pledged to establish a new desalination plant in Sea Cows Bay within three months if elected. The former communications and works minister stated the plan would resolve persistent water shortages in the Third District by moving away from reliance on the Paraquita Bay facility. Vanterpool also proposed renegotiating current water contracts to address systemic distribution and financial issues.
People's Leadership Movement leader Mark Vanterpool has pledged to deliver a dedicated water supply to Sea Cows Bay within three months if his party is elected to lead the Virgin Islands government. Speaking on the Talking Points programme, the former minister for communications and works outlined a plan to construct a new localized desalination plant in Sea Cows Bay, ending the community's dependence on the central facility located at Paraquita Bay.
Addressing questions regarding why persistent utility issues were not resolved during his previous tenure under the National Democratic Party administration, Vanterpool acknowledged the longstanding technical difficulties tied to the territory's distribution network. He explained that the original engineering framework established under the BiWater contract relied on pumping water over mountainous terrain to reach western communities, creating continuous operational hurdles.
To overcome these distribution bottlenecks, Vanterpool expressed support for decentralized, district-level infrastructure. He highlighted container-sized desalination units as a practical and rapidly deployable solution to directly supply specific neighborhoods rather than depending entirely on extensive cross-island pipeline networks.
The commitment comes amid ongoing frustration among residents in the Third District, where households routinely experience severe water disruptions and go without running tap water for weeks at a time. Reliable water access remains one of the most pressing infrastructure concerns for community members heading into the election cycle.
In addition to establishing localized production facilities, Vanterpool noted that existing bulk water purchase agreements would require renegotiation under a PLM administration. He emphasized that his party would work to address the persistent gap between the government's annual expenditure on water production and the revenue recovered through customer collections.
Primary source: BVI News