fp Turks and Caicos

Salt Cay residents and businesses say the dilapidated reverse osmosis water plant on the island and leaky cisterns can’t keep up with their needs and is threatening residents and tourism businesses.

The governor said June 11 that government has set aside $1.3 million for “immediate work” on water production on Salt Cay, Grand Turk and South Caicos. Much work already has been done on Grand Turk, but nothing on Salt Cay.

Maurice Simmons, a public works employee at the plant for more than 12 years, said he has heard promises of help before but has had no indication when it will come.

“It’s time to stop the long talk and do what you can do,” Simmons told the fp. “Promises will not help. We need action.”

“The whole island of Salt Cay depends on that machine because sometime we don’t have rain for a couple of months. People are screaming at me, ‘Oh I need water,’” Simmons said.

The plant on Salt Cay is about 40 years old. It originally served the U.S. Navy base on Grand Turk, then was sent to South Caicos for about 10 years, then to Salt Cay, Simmons said. It’s so old it can’t produce the quantity of water it originally did.

“It’s a continued thing of patching up, patching up, patching up,” Simmons said. “You end up making one mistake, you can get yourself hurt or killed.”

Water was never a problem on Salt Cay until last season, says Porter Williams, director of five businesses on the little island. But the plant can no longer meet demands, and old cisterns are leaking what water they collect.

“Last season we had the best tourist season in years, and that put additional demands on our infrastructure,” Williams said. “Plus more expats stayed for a longer period of time, which increases our need for water.”

“The bottom line is we need the cisterns repaired and a new reverse osmosis unit.”

Government has not answered several requests from the fp for information about when the water problem on Salt Cay will be addressed.

Simmons said government is aware of the problem but has given him no indication as to when the plant and cisterns will be fixed.

“When it comes to Salt Cay, we are always on the back burner. Nobody is concerned about Salt Cay,” Simmons said.