Reclamation Project To Improve Management Of Sewerage Treatment

Government has broken ground for the $220 million Barbados Climate Resilient South Coast Water Reclamation Project, to move from a situation of an emergency fix to a modern permanent solution to sewage treatment. 

Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley gave the assurance that the five-year project would not put Barbados into any further debt, thanks to the Government’s economic team, who worked on the innovative debt for nature swap with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and Nature Conservancy.

Addressing the large gathering at the site of the South Coast Water Reclamation Project, at Harmony Hall, Christ Church, located north of the current Sewage Treatment Plant in Graeme Hall, Ms. Mottley insisted that the Barbados Water Authority (BWA) stands to benefit from millions of dollars.

“That is why the finance and economic team that I have the…honour to lead, innovated the Barbados debt for nature swap, which we did with the Inter-American Development Bank and Nature Conservancy, to come now to the point where we could do this with our partners in the IDB, the European Investment Bank, doing its first guarantee ever in this type of debt for nature swap globally, and the Green Climate Fund providing the grant funding, underpinning all that we were doing, and CIBC doing the financing domestically.”

Ms. Mottley continued: “And what does all of this mean for the average man and woman in Barbados? It means that we are able to build this plant without increasing our debt by a single cent, not even $1. And how?  through repurchasing, as you heard in the video, our debt and refinancing it at lower interest rates and using the savings from those, in order to finance the plant.

 “Out of this debt for climate conversion the BWA will receive $8 million of grant money every year for five years, so long as you meet the conditionalities in terms of your performance…. In other words, the Barbados Water Authority just got $40 million in grant money to increase Barbados’ climate resilience.”

Meanwhile, Senior Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office for Infrastructural projects, Dr. William Duguid, stressed that the project was more than an infrastructural upgrade but a vision of resilience, sustainability and prosperity.

“It is about innovation and partnership. It brings together engineers, policymakers, farmers and citizens in a shared vision to safeguard water for all. By modernising our sewage treatment facilities to a tertiary-level plant, this water will no longer be effluent to be disposed of as far as possible off-site, but instead will become a valuable resource,” Dr. Duguid underlined. 

Contractors on the project are the China Railway Shanghai Engineering Group, the Central & Southern China Municipal Engineering Design and Research Institute Co. Ltd., as well as GreenTech Environmental. (PR/GIS)

Caption: Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley (centre) joins members of Cabinet as they break ground for the $220 million Barbados Climate Resilient South Coast Water Reclamation Project at Harmony Hall, Christ Church