27 February 2017 | Comments
RESERVOIR LEVELS REACH 50% TARGET
The St Helena Resilience Forum and Connect Saint Helena Ltd are today pleased to announce that the formal water restrictions on St Helena have been lifted with immediate effect. This follows a prolonged period of substantive rainfall on St Helena over the last few weeks.
Island reservoir levels have now reached the 50% target with today’s levels recorded at 62%.
Bowsering of water has now ceased but water is still being pumped via the newly installed transfer systems to ensure everyone has access to water. The borehole exploration programme will also continue to go ahead to ensure that we do not find ourselves in a similar situation in the future.
St Helena has been experiencing a severe water shortage since August 2016 when Connect warned St Helena Government that the Island only had sufficient water to last 45 days. In early September, when the trigger point reached 30 days, formal Island-wide restrictions were put in place. The St Helena Resilience Forum began assisting Connect with the coordination of actions and plans to resolve the water shortage in October at the 20 day trigger mark.
The Resilience Forum recognises that the last six months have been a difficult time for the people of St Helena in light of the water restrictions and in reducing their consumption. Everyone is thanked for their continued cooperation and the important role they have played in conserving and maintaining our Island water stocks.
Formal thanks are also extended to Connect staff, contractors who installed the transfer systems, bowser drivers and to the Warning & Informing sub-group for their ongoing and important work throughout this critical period.
Although the situation is significantly better than it has been, the changing weather patterns provide no certainty of when the next rains will come. People have reduced consumption during the crisis and are encouraged to continue exercising care to preserve this precious resource.
St Helena Resilience Forum
27 February 2017
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