PRESS RELEASE – March 2016, residents of the Souci community in Cul De Sac met with officials of the Ministry of Infrastructure, Port Services and Transport and The Water & Sewerage Co. (WASCO) in a town hall setting to discuss new road infrastructure and improvements to the water infrastructure for these residents.
In attendance were Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure, Port Services and Transport (MIPST) Hon. Philip J. Pierre, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Infrastructure, Port Services and Transport Allison A. Jean, General Manager for the Water and Sewerage Company (WASCO) Vincent Hippolyte, Engineer in the MIPST Natalie Popovic, and Anthony Reece from WASCO.
In addressing the audience, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure, Port Services and Transport Hon. Philip J. Pierre recalled that the Prime Minister alerted him of the need to undertake some repairs to this road after one of his visits to the community in 2015.
Following the MIPST’s assessment of this road, Minister Phillip J. Pierre ordered complete rehabilitation. As a result, the Government of St. Lucia has secured funding for this project, and the community will soon have a new concrete road surface with improvements to the drainage.
For his part, the General Manager of WASCO noted that his organization was aware of the challenges the residents faced in receiving a reliable water supply. The company had previously laid a 4” water main to a section of that community, but that line had not been energized.
When WASCO was made aware that the MIPST was about to undertake this project, they decided to profit the opportunity to continue the laying of a 4” main throughout the rest of the community to replace the existing 2” main and connect all existing water connections to the 4’mains, while simultaneously energising the previously laid 4” main. This therefore means that residents will now have access to a more efficient potable water supply.
For their part, the residents were very pleased with this development as it represented a huge effort on the part of the two entities to address their most pressing needs. The residents were very grateful for the interventions and conveyed their deepest appreciation. They also expressed some concern that there are still some land regularization issues which are yet to be resolved with the land owners – Geest, despite several interventions by the Government from the year 2000 to regularize land ownership.
The project is expected to be completed by the end of April 2016.
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