New Cane Garden Bay sewerage project may be reviewed

It is not too late to rethink the new Cane Carden Bay sewerage project that is estimated to cost taxpayers $4 million and span 18 months.

That’s the word coming from Deputy Premier and Minister of Communications and Works Kye Rymer during a question-and-answer session with Territorial At-Large Representative, Carvin Malone, during the January 26 sitting of the House of Assembly.

The government is planning to replace the low-pressure sewage system with a gravity system. However, it was obvious during the sitting of the House that Malone, a water and sewerage veteran businessman, is not impressed with the new project.

Malone started out by asking Minister Rhymer to disclose what practice was taken into consideration when the decision was first made to replace and/or repair the grinder pump system after 20 years of service.

In response, Minister Rhymer noted a correction: that the low-pressure system was installed in 1997 and not 1997 as stated by Hon. Malone. Rhymer then went on to give a brief history of the Cane Garden sewage project, a contract which was awarded to Caribbean Basin Enterprises Ltd. in 1996 and completed a year later. Though Rhymer did not mention it in his remarks, it is noteworthy to mention that Hon. Carvin Malone was the owner of Caribbean Basin Enterprises at the time the contract.

While Rhymer disclosed the estimated cost and time it will take to design, build, and decommission the new gravity system, he was not able to give a concrete answer, whether or not the generators — that are important to avoid spills into Cane Garden Bay waters — are included in the $4 million budgeted for the project.

It was after this exchange that Malone asked the minister if it would be too late to go back to the drawing board on this project:

Rymer responded by saying it is never too late.