No increase to debt from project, says Mottley

Barbados has taken another step to finally close the door on an embarrassing issue, says Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley, as ground was broken yesterday for a tertiary wastewater treatment facility.

The $220 million Barbados Climate Resilient South Coast Water Reclamation Project, set to be completed in five years, will be located north of the South Coast Sewage Treatment Plant in Graeme Hall, Christ Church.

Mottley said the project did not put Barbados into any further debt as it was funded via a special financial process, a global first.

Committed

“This Government has had challenges which we inherited with respect to our finances, [but] we have remained committed to reducing our debtto- GDP (gross domestic product) ratio. We knew that it would be difficult for us to achieve all of these benefits.

“That is why the finance and economic team that I have the utter and absolute honour to lead, innovated the Barbados debt to nature swap, which we did with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and Nature Conservancy, to come now to the point where we could do this with our partners in the [IDB] and 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 financial risk.”

She said this meant “we are able to build this plant without increasing our debt by a single cent”.

The Prime Minister also revealed the debt to nature swap would result in millions of dollars for the Barbados Water Authority (BWA).

“Out of this debt for climate conversion [the BWA] will receive $8 million of grant money every year for five years so long as we meet the conditionalities in terms of performance,” she said, adding they would also be able to get savings from that debt every year over a 15-year period of around $50 to $60 million, which could then be utilised to further increase Barbados’ climate resilience.

Shame

Mottley recalled when raw sewage was spilling in the streets along the South Coast, saying it caused the island no end of shame among the international community.

“All through 2017 and into early 2018, many of our diplomatic partners issued advisories. Many of our small businesses were forced not to be able to earn money. Many of our hotels were affected and above all else, many who lived in the area who had no opportunity to run from what they were seeing. Those who worked could escape it by night or by day depending on how they worked, but those who lived in the area could not escape the trauma, the smell and the horror.

“I well remember that my first call, on the first Thursday to be precise, May 31, 2018, to the then head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde. She was at the G20 meeting, it was 7:30 p.m., and I was in my office with the then Governor of the Central Bank Cleviston Haynes . . . .

“The first question [she] asked me, to my chagrin and shame as a Bajan, was: ‘Is the sewage still flowing in the streets?’ I shall never forget that moment, nor shall I forget the extent to which thousands of people on this South Coast were in fact displaced, affected and compromised,” the Prime Minister told those gathered.

However, Mottley said her administration pivoted from that embarrassment and was now in a position to “right some of the wrongs we inherited”.

Slowed by pandemic

She explained that getting the sewage under control was but the initial step, and though the COVID-19 pandemic slowed down efforts to revolutionise Barbados’ water treatment and reclamation, they were now back on track.

“We then took the decision [that] if we are going to increase our water resources for households and for development, we needed to make a major change and treat the water here such that it can be used to replenish our aquifers. Such that it can be used to be able to also help us with the irrigation necessary for our small farmers, and so began the journey that allowed us to integrate multiple purposes,” she said.

After the ceremony, technical adviser for the Barbados Water Authority, Dr John Mwansa, said the project included the rehabilitation of the existing sewerage plant, as the wastewater from there first had to be screened for solid objects.

“It will then go through a biological treatment process, and then it will go through some filters to remove any remaining particles. Then it will be pushed through a reverse osmosis plant. So once that process is finished, the product will be disinfected through ultraviolet light and then chlorine.

“So the water that will go from here will supplement the irrigation requirements, and it will also be recharged around the Botanical Garden into the aquifer when it is not in use for irrigation,” he added. (CA) 

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