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Dominica this week began making its first shipment of water to the drought ravaged neighboring island of St Lucia.

Over the past several weeks, St Lucia like most of the other Caribbean countries have been hit with a prolonged drought that have resulted in severe water shortages, leaving several areas without potable water.

DOWASCO General manager Bernard Etinoffe.

General manager of the Dominica Water and Sewerage Company (DOWASCO) Bernard Etinoffe, disclosed recently that several other islands have requested water from Dominica and that these were being considered on a case by case basis.

The first water shipment to St Lucia left Dominica yesterday and Etinoffe says that his company expects to supply approximately two million gallons of water per week, to its neighbor.

The water executive also disclosed that the supply of water to St Lucia will not impact negatively on domestic water consumption. “We certainly are not going to be loading a tanker in Roseau, either at the harbour, or the cruise ship berth, during peak consumption or peak demand time. What we propose to do, is to load these tankers at nights and at the Portsmouth cruise ship berth.”

In recent weeks there have been calls by officials in Dominica for the public to exercise constraint in their water usage as drought conditions continue throughout the region. These same conditions may also adversely affect Dominica’s ability to supply water to other countries in need.

In mid-February, Adrian Trotman head of the Caribbean institute for meteorology and hydrology (CIMH) based in Barbados issued a drought warning for the Caribbean and said at the time that drought conditions was expected to “continue until March and maybe even longer.”

"Since October the amount of rainfall has been very low. It is possible the drought will continue until March and possibly beyond then. In March we will have another rainfall forecast to determine the situation from that time until May," Trotman said.

At the time the alert was issued, Trotman said that Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, Barbados and Saint Lucia were the most affected by the drought and that their situation was considered to be severe.

In Trinidad & Tobago and certain parts of Guyana the drought was also considered to be serious but not critical. Trotman also said at the time that Dominica had not yet been too badly affected.

The drought is posing serious problems for agriculture in all the affected countries particularly in Guyana where irrigation is widely used. In Antigua, the government recently instituted water rationing.

The Region’s water woes started in October 2009 and is said to be adversely affected by the climate phenomenon El Niño.

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