Vanterpool Criticises BVI Water Supply Standards
People’s Leadership Movement (PLM) leader Mark Vanterpool has accused the government of allowing the Virgin Islands to slip into third-world conditions by failing to provide residents with a reliable water supply.
People’s Leadership Movement (PLM) leader Mark Vanterpool has accused the government of allowing the Virgin Islands to slip into third-world conditions by failing to provide residents with a reliable water supply. The former Communications and Works Minister said residents should not have to resort to storing water or using buckets to meet their daily needs in 2026. “We have accepted mediocrity, and we have gone back to being a third-world country when it comes to something that is a right of people,” Vanterpool said during an episode of the PLM’s People’s Mic podcast. “Water is a human right that you should have access to and we are accepting that because the government can’t deliver it to us.
The government is telling us you must store water,” he added. Vanterpool argued that the territory needed a major policy shift in water production and distribution, particularly the reliance on supplying several communities from a central desalination plant. He questioned the effectiveness of pumping water across mountainous terrain, citing persistent shortages in Sea Cows Bay despite previous attempts to supply the community from another plant. “It hasn’t worked.
When I was a minister, I challenged the engineers,” Vanterpool stated. He proposed establishing desalination plants near major population centres, supported by adequate reservoirs and upgraded distribution networks. “Every key population centre in the BVI should have a water-desal plant and be able to fix the piping infrastructure and the reservoirs to deliver water to those population centres,” he said.
Vanterpool specifically called for a dedicated plant in Sea Cows Bay and the reactivation of the Baughers Bay facility to provide Road Town with a continuous supply. He also questioned why residents continued to experience nightly water interruptions. “It is not rocket science. The PLM leader acknowledged that replacing ageing water pipes would require a longer-term programme and declined to promise that the work could be completed within 90 days.
He suggested that a comprehensive replacement programme could address many of the territory’s leaks and distribution problems over four or five years. Vanterpool nevertheless maintained that restoring reliable water supplies must rank among the next government’s highest priorities. “I just hope that they will find a solution.
And they don’t have to wait until elections to find a solution. I wish they could find it before elections,” he stated. The government’s position has been that ageing infrastructure and years of underinvestment have contributed to the shortages. Works Minister Kye Rymer has identified deteriorating pipelines, reservoirs and the closure of water plants among the problems affecting distribution.
In September, the Water and Sewerage Department also reported progress towards recommissioning the Hannah Hill reservoir, which serves Sea Cows Bay and neighbouring communities.
Primary source: BVI News