Belmopan’s water supply interrupted

Ten o’clock tonight: that’s the time, at which Belize Water Services Limited says it will be able to restore Belmopan’s water supply. Some parts of the capital have water but as of now, Orchid Extension, Cotton Tree Village, St. Matthews Village and Franks Eddy Village are still without. The unplanned interruption came as a surprise to many of the residents of the capital city, its periphery communities and nearby villages early this morning. The company explained that the unplanned water interruption was due to an electrical malfunction at the pumping station at the reservoir and a broken water main. BWS later informed that repairs at the pumping station at the reservoir have been completed. Love News spoke to Chief Operations Officer Sanjay Keshwani, who explained the weekend weather had an impact on the city’s ageing infrastructure. 

Sanjay Keshwani, Chief Operations Officer, BWS: “Over the past few days we’ve had continuous rain for the past few days. So what happened is that certain components of the electrical system had moisture content on it and this morning especially pumps and motor malfunction so they were not starting up especially during the peak time. So we needed to diagnose what happened with those instruments and components and simultaneously there was a leak on South Ring Road with the major pipeline that leads from the reservoir and pump to the pumping station so again we needed to identify where the leak is same time we fix the electrical components so that has caused major unplanned water interruption for the whole capital of Belmopan.” 

We asked Keshwani about the need to upgrade the company’s infrastructure in Belmopan. 

 Report : Was this something that could have been avoided Sir? 

Sanjay Keshwani, Chief Operations Officer, BWS: “No the lines in Belmopan are pretty old, the system, so those leaks are a little bit out of our control  and again the weather situation created by weather is also beyond our control period we have been for example in Cayo and Benque the measures that have been put in place for all period of years thank God is working, it’s holding us good but whether and certain things we cannot control.” 

 Reporter: But outside of the weather you just admitted that the infrastructure is aging, it’s about 50 years old that tells me that it was built there perhaps when the city was originally founded because Belmopan itself is about 50 years old so are there any considerations in the future for perhaps a revisit, a revamping, a replacement of this aging infrastructure? 

Sanjay Keshwani, Chief Operations Officer, BWS:  “It’s not about future we actually have been working with different municipalities to upgrade our infrastructure so example two years back we had upgraded a hundred street works in Belize city so same thing is happening in different municipalities we work with all the mayors and upgrade our infrastructure simultaneously while they are upgrading the streets so we achieved a long run goal and win win for everybody so it’s ongoing. It’s not about future we have to keep up and keep upgrading.” 

A notice issued by the company says that Orchid Extension in the city, Cotton Tree, St. Matthews and Franks Eddy Villages are expected to have their services restored by 10 o’clock tonight.