AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums The Cayes Environment Lack of Water....

What did Consolidated Water Services end up doing to solve their equipment problem?

As soon as an official announcment is made it will be posted on the site. Until then we'll all have to wait.

Thanks Simon

Has anyone noticed that we are still experiencing low water pressure. I have been doing some research and I have some disturbing realizations.
On islands like Ambergris Caye water is obtained from wells that are fed by aquifers that is then put through a desalination process. The water gets into the aquifers by settling through the sand and wet lands. The water works its way through the silt, a layer of "peat" and then fissures in the limestone. The "peat" acts as a natural screen or filter If the layer of "peat" that is over the fissures is disturbed or removed the silt then flows into the fissures to the aquifers and into the wells. You might ask "what would cause the disturbance or removal of the peat?" The most common culprit is dredging and excavating.
Could this have happened here and could this be what is clogging the membranes at Consolidated?

Are you saying that "silt" is the mysterious substance that is clogging the membranes?

Seems very likely. The probable cause is also very likely.

It sounds highly unlikely that silt would get by the pre-filter and sounds odd that they would have to send samples away to the U.S. to find that it was only silt.

Silt and sediment can obviously have a large variety of components....I am guessing the tests were done to get the breakdown of what was clogging the membranes to then identify where it was coming from. Maybe they are comparing it from other samples from near by areas to see if the same components are found.

That could very well be the case Ecoman. It's certainly been a long time for them to get it corrected. Hopefully the only reason for the current low pressure you are experiencing only has to do with the fact that they are making adjustments to get the job done. They are supposed to be experts with several plants and it's hard to believe they haven't come up with a solution yet.

We have low pressure because they are not able to produce enough water. The million gallon tank is no where near full. I have been doing lots of research...the part that is worrisome is that if the aquifers have been compromised, which I believe they have, there is no real solution. They need to stop all movement and traffic in the area and let mother nature repair herself. I guess it goes back to why this area was acquired to be a buffer zone. In the meantime they have to change filters weekly and work on other ideas for getting water. There do not seem to be any immediate solutions and it looks like we might all pay the price for one developer not doing an EIA. When the reports come out I wonder how that developer is going to explain himself to this community.