Wells on private land ‘hard to map’

While Government has declared success in mapping wells located on roads and other areas accessible to state agencies, identifying wells on private properties remains a major challenge.

Speaking with the Weekend Nation yesterday, Jennifer King, acting chief technical officer in the Ministry of Transport and Works (MTW), said the task was difficult given the sheer number of wells across the island, many of which were hidden or unknown.

“We have been continuing the mapping but that is one of the areas of concern and one of those difficulties because a lot of wells are on private property and it’s not that easy mapping them.

“When you go into those vast areas of private property, there are a tremendous [number] of wells and you will have people who have been in that area for quite a while who still don’t even realise that there is a well there,” she said.

While precise figures on the number of wells mapped were not available at the time, King confirmed that those located in areas easily accessible to Government had already been identified.

She explained that on private lands, particularly large acreages such as plantations, the Drainage Unit relied heavily on landowners for information but even that could be incomplete.

Public safety

“Let’s take a plantation. Someone may know that there are six wells there but they may not recall that there is a seventh and we may not know until something happens. It may have been abandoned and they don’t recall,” she added.

King said that mapping wells served multiple purposes beyond public safety.

“The other reasons that we’re trying to map these would be because when we start looking at water courses and how the water moves, it helps to know where these existing wells are and how much water they’re taking,” she said.

Public concern over the danger of exposed wells resurfaced following a frightening incident on Monday afternoon in Goodland Gardens, Christ Church, when 72-year-old Lolene Rawlins fell into an uncovered 87-foot well hidden by bush beneath a dunks tree in an open pasture in the area which she routinely crossed during her morning and evening walks.

Rawlins spent about 12 hours trapped in the well before being rescued by members of the Roving Response Team and the Barbados Fire Service. The rescue operation took nearly two hours.

She has since returned home and is counting herself fortunate to be alive, having suffered a bruised knee, lacerations to her left foot and injuries to two fingers on her left hand.

Rawlins also raised concerns about the number of open wells left unchecked in private fields.

The well has since been barricaded. Residents said it had previously been covered with a sheet of galvanise after a cow fell into it several years ago and had to be rescued by the Barbados Fire Service. Over time, tall grass grew around the area, concealing the hazard.

The issue of exposed wells is not new. This media house has previously highlighted the danger in reports published in 2017, 2019 and 2021.

In July 2019, Member of Parliament for St James South, Sandra Husbands, said a programme was being fast-tracked by the Ministry of Housing to address the condition of National Housing Corporation (NHC) units and their environs, including poorly secured and dilapidated wells. That initiative followed the tragic death of 18-yearold Kyriq Boyce, who fell into a 100-foot well at Martin Road, The Pine, St Michael, on July 4.

In the days following Boyce’s death, residents in NHC communities across Gall Hill, Wotton, Sayes Court and St Matthias in Christ Church, Wildey in St Michael and Haynesville in St James also raised concerns about exposed wells in their neighbourhoods. (JRN)

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