60,000 customers still without water three days after Storm Fiona

Nearly 60,000 customers (individuals or businesses) were still without water in Guadeloupe on Tuesday, September 20, three days after storm Fiona hit the archipelago. The Basse-Terre Hospital Center (CHBT) is particularly concerned. The latter made it known that this shortage compromised its proper functioning and the continuity of care.

The health establishment reported in a press release a possible “pipe leak”stating that“a crisis unit [avait] constituted in order to take emergency measures”. According to the CHBT, the prefecture “make every effort to supply the hospital with water”. “It is about the absolute necessity of maintaining the interventions and other emergency medical acts programmed within the establishment”he specified.

The CHBT is not the only one to experience difficulties in accessing water. According to the Joint Syndicate of Water Management and Sanitation of Guadeloupe (SMGEAG), nearly 32% of its customers (58,618 customers) were still deprived of it on Tuesday. “Very big works are to be expected” for the restoration of the water network, added the SMGEAG, referring at least “Several weeks” before returning to normal.

Usually, many municipalities on the island are subject to solidarity water towers (consisting of cutting off the water in one district to supply another), due to the dilapidated state of the distribution network and the very numerous leaks which cause massive losses of drinking water. The former public company was replaced in September 2021 by the SMGEAG, in an attempt to resolve the water crisis in Guadeloupe.