Workshop focuses on sustainable water supply
Findings on the country’s water situation, which include its production, consumption and projected water balance were presented on Friday to key stakeholders for their feedback.
This was part of the Seychelles water supply development plan being carried out by the Public Utilities Corporation (PUC), to ensure availability and affordable water up to 2030.
This meeting, held at the International Conference Centre, was attended by the environment principal secretary Didier Dogley, PUC chief executive Bernard Delaboudiniere, his deputy Joel Valmont, and water and sewerage managing director Keith Eddleston.
Also present were the Severn Trent Services company project manager Patrick Egan, Sky consulting company design engineer, Bashir Cassimally, National Development principal secretary Christian Lionnet, consultants from the Civil Engineering Consultancy Firm-GIBB’s local coordinator Gerard Lafortune, district administrators and other stakeholders.
GIBB, a Mauritius-based company which offers engineering services, was appointed by the PUC to work on the water development plan in 2009 and it has associated itself with Severn Trent from the United Kingdom to carry out the project.
Addressing the audience Mr Dogley said the government has since the 1970s initiated a number of studies to ensure reliable supply for treated water.
He said these studies were made to help improve the production capacity in an effort to bridge the current and future water deficit.
We have embarked on a number of policies to overcome some problems such as by asking new hotel developers to install their own desalination plant to meet their own water needs, which will go a long way in reducing pressure on the PUC water supply system.
Similarly the recently announced soft loan facility for clients of the PUC which will facilitate the financing of storage tanks installation for domestic use.
Other initiatives that will lead to lower water demand such as roof water harvesting, installation of water conservation devices and a differentiated billing system will together contribute towards this goal.
Mr Delaboudiniere said water supply is the main problem in Seychelles; for example on Mahe there are not enough water reserves especially during the dry season.
“If we do not get rain we will not have sufficient water supply until the end of the year and we might have to impose water restriction,” he said.
Consumers will have to limit water consumption and to end this problem there is the need to have water storage facilities which includes building dams which costs a lot.
He said the proposed Grand Anse Mahe dam will cost R500 million, and that the PUC will have to find ways to finance that, which will probably mean borrowing money.
And we will have to come up with a tariff based on how the consumers use up water.
“The infrastructures also are old and they will have to be replaced, we will have to do a study to decide on the tariff for the next 20 years based on the way people consume,” he added.
The priority now is to reduce significantly the loss of water as this will be a saving for PUC and with that money we can repair and replace aged fittings.
Through his presentation Mr Egan talked about the non-revenue water reduction, meaning the volume of water supplied into the system that does not generate any revenue to the PUC.
It is mainly due to leakage caused by old pipes and error in billings.
He added that if these problems are sorted out it will create additional revenue for the PUC for them to invest back into infrastructure.
Mr Cassimally gave a presentation on the constraints that the PUC is facing such as access to potable water, limited storage capacity, water quality risk and about water consumption in the country.
He also spoke about GIBB’s future work programme and said to increase water capacity as with increased tourism development and demand for water will bring a lot of pressure on the PUC.
“After the audit we have found that the PUC needs to find ways to decrease wastage and demand through water saving devices, such as special toilets and washing machines,” he said.
The longer term objective of this project is to develop plans to meet the rising demand for water supply in the country until 2030 and obtain funding for priority investment projects, as well as to improve the performance and service delivery of the PUC water and sewerage division.