Utilities Minister Melford Nicholas said Friday that Antigua and Barbuda now has sufficient water production capacity to meet national demand, but acknowledged that weaknesses in transmission and distribution continue to leave some communities without consistent supply.
“We have sufficient water now in the system, ” Nicholas said, adding that ongoing complaints are “a function of the imperfect transmission and distribution system ” .
Speaking at the commissioning of the Barnacle Point reverse osmosis plant, Nicholas drew a clear distinction between water production — which he said has been largely stabilized — and the aging infrastructure responsible for delivering water to homes.
The newly opened Barnacle Point facility adds two million imperial gallons per day to the national supply, following the earlier commissioning of a one-million-gallon-per-day plant at Fryes Beach. Together, the plants have significantly expanded production capacity under a partnership between the Antigua Public Utilities Authority and Seven Seas Water Group .
Nicholas said the focus is now shifting to the next phase of reform.
“Stage one: production, ” he said. “We now have to deal with transmission and distribution ” .
He acknowledged public frustration, noting that residents who experience outages are often unconcerned with technical explanations. “When people don’t get water, they’re not concerned with the details, ” Nicholas said, underscoring the political and social pressure placed on the utility when service is interrupted .
According to Nicholas, major work remains ahead, including replacing aging pipelines — some of which are decades old — and automating the water distribution system to improve response times and efficiency. He said these upgrades are essential to ensuring that increased production translates into reliable household supply.
APUA Chief Executive Officer John Bradshaw has previously said that automation and large-scale repiping are critical to ending uneven distribution across the island, even as national output continues to set new records .
Nicholas said the government’s strategy is to get ahead of future demand while managing public expectations during the transition.
“The first leg of the relay is complete, ” he said, referring to water production. The remaining challenge, he added, is ensuring that water reaches every community consistently through a modernized transmission and distribution network .