UPP asks reasons for APUA’s deal with Seven Seas and status of ACB loan funds for Bethesda RO plant

The United Progressive Party (UPP) is asking about the millions of
borrowed dollars borrowed by the Antigua Public Utilities Authority
(APUA) to upgrade its water-supply systems and for the
construction of a Reverse Osmosis Plant in Bethesda.

The questions follow APUA’s signing of a public-private partnership
agreement with a company known as Seven Seas for enhancement
of the supply of water.
 
Through its public relations officer, Damani Tabor, the UPP says that
its MPs, including Opposition Leader Jamale Pringle, are yet to see
the agreement, as it has not been taken before the Parliament.
 
Tabor notes that the Gaston Browne Administration had boasted
about investing hundreds of millions of dollars in rectifying the
water crisis.

And yet, he says, the situation is largely the same – and, in some,
cases might have gotten worse.
 
The public relations officer recalls that APUA took out a loan of
about $180 million from ACB Caribbean. Hence, he is asking why the
need for this new public-private partnership, when some of the
funds borrowed should have been used to construct a mega Reverse
Osmosis Plant in Bethesda. 

At a time when people are suffering severely and being taxed out of
existence, Tabor states that citizens and residents are being asked to
pay a second time for something they have already paid for, and this
is nonsensical. 
 
He says the Administration should explain to the people the current
status of that RO plant, on which construction should already have
started.
 
There should be justification for why this plant – which was
expected to help meet the full output of potable water – has been

abandoned, and why this new arrangement has been signed, Tabor
says.
 
Water rates for businesses were scheduled to increase on March 1,
with households to follow. But Tabor is now asking what could
justify any such increases.

Public Relations Officer for the United Progressive Party Damani
Tabor.