The water shortages that have plagued the territory for years are a national disgrace, and we are glad the government has rolled out a preliminary strategy to address the situation.
However, we have mixed feelings about that strategy.
On the positive side, it is good to hear that $8 million has been allocated to the effort from the government’s $100 million loan from CIBC Caribbean bank.
This funding is far short of what is needed overall, but if spent wisely it should help address the most immediate needs and ease the water woes while more comprehensive works are carried out over the long term.
Also reasonable is a plan to prioritise tackling leaks in the existing water system. This approach is simple common sense.
Currently, as much as 80 percent of the water produced in the territory is lost to leaks, according to visiting engineers from the Canada-based non-profit Operators Without Borders.
We also applaud the government’s decision to invite the volunteer team from OWB — which helps developing countries restore water services after disasters — to carry out a needs assessment to help guide the way forward.
Clearly, such help was needed. We look forward to reading OWB’s completed report, which leaders have promised to make public.
Another prong of the water strategy troubles us. The government has declared water infrastructure a “national critical priority,” which will allow it to bypass tendering requirements put in place after the Commission of Inquiry.
We understand the rationale behind the move: Tendering takes time, and easing the rules should allow government to award contracts more quickly to address what is clearly an urgent crisis.
But in the past, skipping the tender process has gone very badly in the Virgin Islands. Indeed, the current water woes are due in no small part to the many large no-bid contracts that successive governments awarded to cronies who then failed to complete the work promised.
In other words, generations of leaders have played politics with the territory’s water system, and the public is now suffering the consequences.
Government must not continue down this path.
Moving forward, then, leaders should award no-bid contracts only when absolutely necessary. And when they do, they must take steps to ensure full transparency and retain the public’s trust.
These measures include carrying out thorough due-diligence and publishing comprehensive information about all contracts, including regular progress reports.
To that end, leaders should seek the support of the Recovery and Development Agency — which, unlike the central government, has established a record of delivering projects more or less on time and on budget.
If government spends the $8 million wisely in this manner, the money should serve as a suitable stopgap to plug leaks and address other emergency needs.
Ultimately, though, the territory’s water system needs a comprehensive overhaul that will cost much more than $8 million. This broader endeavour should be styled not as a series of small contracts but as a major project managed start to finish by the RDA.
To get started, government should use the OWB report as a touchstone and work with the RDA to create a long-term strategy for the way forward that looks ahead at least ten years.
Such careful planning is absolutely crucial in solving the complex problems plaguing the water system.
If contracts are awarded in a piecemeal fashion without the needed rigour in the coming months, taxpayers will watch their money disappear down the drain very quickly while the water woes continue unabated. That must not happen.
