An update on pipe laying operations to provide more homes and businesses with water in the eastern districts was given at Friday’s Cabinet press briefing.
A backhoe discharges backfill material into a trench under the watchful eye of a Water Authority pipe layer and foreman in Old Man Bay, North Side. A trench compactor is in the foreground. |
Minister of Works and Infrastructure Arden McLean reported on two developments in that regard by the Cayman Islands Water Authority, the statutory body responsible for water and waste water locally.
He advised that high levels of demand from residents, businesses and future commercial developments had led to additional equipment being bought and the setting up a second pipe laying crew.
The Water Authority’s Deputy Director Tom Van Zanten later advised that nearly CI$500,000 had been spent in additional equipment for a second pipe laying crew. The expenditure included a trencher, backhoe, dump truck, trench compactor, portable screen and a crew cab truck.
Mr. McLean said that the crews were taking a two-pronged approach in pipe laying.
He reported that one crew would continue pipe laying towards the west (along North Side Road and Rum Point Drive). Some of the anticipated milestones would be: Hutland Road entrance by the end of November and to Cayman Kai (the Retreat) by September 2007.
Schedule of works
The other crew, he said, would start at Old Man Bay, along Old Robin Road to the Queen’s Highway.
Mr. Van Zanten said he anticipated that pipe laying would reach the Queen’s Highway Monument by the end of February 2007, with the completion of pipe laying along the Queen’s Highway by July 2008.
He also advised that the authority’s water distribution system in North Side currently extends along Frank Sound Road including most side roads, and North Side Road up to Further Road. It is expected that piped water will be available up to the Craddock Ebanks Civic Centre by the end of this week.
At present the water distribution system in East End extends along Austin Conolly Drive past Colliers up to Castaways Cove.
Mr. Van Zanten advised the Caymanian Compass about the number of households without city water in East End and North Side.
‘To date the water authority has received applications for and has connected approximately 120 properties in the North Side district,’ he said.
‘There are approximately 400 households in the district … therefore approximately two-thirds of the total number of households either have not yet made an application or have no access to piped water.’
He reported that the connection figure for East End was close to 90 properties.
‘More than 75 per cent of the more than 400 households in this district have not yet made an application or have no access to piped water (i.e. the properties along the Queen’s Highway),’ he stated.
Minister McLean was enthusiastic about these developments and commented on how they dovetailed with the government’s ongoing ‘Go East’ campaign, which aims to attract and develop tourism in Bodden Town, East End and North Side.
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