On its website, Dominica water and Sewerage Company (DOWASCO) Ltd. lists some general facts about water to educate its customers. For example, “Today, the amount of water on earth remains exactly the same as it was billions of years ago, no more, no less,” the company says. Additionally, “Next to the air we breathe, water is our most important need – all living things need water.”
These two facts stand out because of how they inform DOWASCO’s operations of providing potable drinking water and sewerage services to communities throughout Dominica. Not only is the operation dealing with a limited resource, it also has to do all it can to protect the water used by the island nation and encourage its customers to do the same. It strives to meet these goals by educating its customers and sharing best practices with other island nations in the Caribbean.
“Dominica is the island in the Caribbean with the most fresh water resources – we are recognized as the nature island of the Caribbean, the land of rivers with 365 rivers,” explains Ivanira Da Costa James, operations and maintenance manager. “Our natural resource is of very high-quality, so it requires not as much treatment and is not too expensive. We have a very reliable supply, and our goal is to continue to be a clean and pristine island.”
Water conservation and water catchment protection is part of DOWASCO’s daily operation, James notes, and says the continuation of its metering program will assist in that effort. DOWASCO uses flyers and community meetings to explain to customers how they can conserve and protect the water resources, and its education program sends staff members to local schools to give lessons. James explains that DOWASCO even has songs on radio stations about the importance of conservation.
“Because of the climate change and climate variability, it’s even more important to conserve water,” she says. “We’ve been educating our customers about how to regulate their usage, how to work with children on conserving water and how to water their lawns in a conservative manner. We ask everyone to think about what they can do at home and with their neighbors to assist with water conservation.”
Excellence Recognized
Although conserving its water resources is of utmost importance to Dominica, DOWASCO also must ensure its supply of potable water meets residents’ needs. This is one of the company’s largest challenges, James says.
“Because of our geographic location, we are subject to major changes in the weather pattern,” she says. “During the hurricane season – from July to November – the water supply networks are affected, and the rehabilitation of the water systems may become an urgent solution and require further finance either from the Government of Dominica or other international agencies.”
As a result, the work on water supply networks is very intensive – the supply lines are in remote locations and suffer from the environmental conditions. Thus, the maintenance of the water systems and rehabilitation of existing and new water system projects identified to replace the aging infrastructures are high priority for DOWASCO and the government to ensure a reliable supply of water.
To ensure it maintains its systems and overall operation in an efficient manner, DOWASCO provides ongoing training programs to its employees throughout the year. It also shares information with other Caribbean utilities to develop best practices in the region.
“In our network, it is common to liaise with other utilities in the Caribbean,” James says. “We also take full advantage of workshops throughout the region to learn quality practices and improve our operation.”
One of DOWASCO’s current goals is to complete its master plan, she says, to guide the development of its water systems in a sustainable manner.
“Our mission is to be recognized as a company of excellence,” she stresses. “We don’t want to hurt the environment, just enhance it. This is why water resource management is so important to our operation – we want to be able to sustain the water supply for all of our stakeholders.”
