Experts examine water supply situation |24 September 2010

Yesterday some of these 17 engineers – who come from the Gibb company of Mauritius – gave presentations to members of the National Assembly, district administrators and senior government officials at the Seychelles Trading Company’s conference room.

They talked about the present and expected demand for water on Mahe, Praslin, La Digue and the nearby islands, as well as on the newly reclaimed areas, up to the year 2030. 

The engineers shared their initial findings, which show a deficit between the available water and the actual demand, and suggested possible ways of overcoming this shortage.

Among others who spoke on the situation were Wills Agricole – who represented the principal secretary for environment – deputy chief executive of the Public Utilities Corporation Joel Valmont and the PUC’s managing director for water and sewerage Keith Eddleston.

Mr Agricole said yesterday’s meeting was called to validate the first part of the report of the Seychelles Water Supply Development Plan 2008-2030.

“Water supply here is generally at a good level, though water shortages still occur mainly during the dry periods of the year. Water restrictions are now common on the three main islands of Mahe, Praslin and La Digue, and the situation will worsen if appropriate measures are not taken rapidly,” he said.

“The demand for drinking water is continuously rising as a result of the growth of population, tourism activities and other commercial developments. The topography of the islands of Seychelles is such that it is difficult to create sufficient storage capacity at reasonable cost, and up to now the traditional sources of freshwater have been streams and reservoirs.”

He said Seychelles has an irregular distribution of rainfall, made worse by climate change which has brought about drier weather and longer periods without rainfall.

“There was an increase in the level of unaccounted-for water due to the ageing of pipes,” he said.

“However, there has been a concerted effort from the PUC to improve the network and contribute to increasing its efficiency. Some of the pipes date back more than 50 years and have exceeded their economic lives. This, unfortunately, results in frequent bursts.”
 
Mr Agricole said the investment costs of water infrastructure are climbing, and few consumers know the true cost of supplying water although there has been some effort to conserve it.

“Water conservation measures already in place during our dry season have delivered results,” he said.
“These have conclusively proved that water conservation, in addition to the environmental benefits, is a practical, realistic and economic way of meeting much of the extra demand for water.”

He said Plan 2008-2030 will give a valuable insight into various options and potential solutions to our water supply problems.

“The government has engaged itself in a systematic, scientific and professional manner to analyse all dimensions where water development is crucially required to be carried out so as to meet the challenges of the new economy,” he added.

We have taken care to launch this water supply development plan with complete involvement of all the stakeholders. We are confident of achieving target results.”