Wasco continues supply efforts in Babonneau amid prolonged dry season

The Water and Sewerage Company Inc. (WASCO) wishes to update the public on the current status of the Hill 20 System. Although the island has now entered the rainy season, the effects of the prolonged dry season are still being felt across Saint Lucia, and the Babonneau Network, supplied by the Hill 20 Water Treatment facility remains among the most severely impacted.

While the island has received some rainfall in recent weeks, it has done little to ease conditions at the source. The showers have been too light and too scattered to replenish catchments or restore river levels, and much of the water is absorbed by the dry ground before it can reach our intakes. This is consistent with the position shared by the Meteorological Services, which has indicated that rainfall remains well below normal for this time of year.

As a result, production at Hill 20 has fallen well below normal. Pumping must now be managed in cycles, running for limited periods and then pausing to allow storage to recover before supply can resume. This directly limits how far, and how often, water can reach communities across the network.

Communities at higher elevations and at the far ends of the distribution network feel this impact first and most acutely. Areas including  Boguis, Savanne en Haut, Garrand, Plateau, La Croix, Paix Bouche, La Guerre, Upper Monier, Ti Dauphin, Desrameaux, Ravine Macock, La Borne, are among those most adversely affected, where steep terrain and long supply lines make consistent delivery especially difficult under current production levels.

To reach these communities, WASCO has prioritised the trucking of potable water to the most severely affected areas and continues to operate community valving schedules that hold and redirect supply so that available water is shared as fairly as possible. Crews are in the field daily working to serve as many households as conditions allow, and water quality monitoring continues across the system to ensure that every drop delivered remains safe.

WASCO appeals to all customers in affected areas to use reserves sparingly and to store water safely. We ask for patience and cooperation with our field teams, who are working under very difficult conditions to keep water moving to every community.

For more information on trucking and valving in your community, please contact WASCO’s Control Room at 482-0052 (north) or 482-0051 (south). Thank you for your understanding as we continue to work together to manage these conditions.