STUCO’s new drinking water storage tank at Lodi.
ST. EUSTATIUS--The St. Eustatius utility company STUCO has completed the installation of its new drinking water storage tank. The new storage tank, which is located in Lodi, will increase the water-storage capacity from two to ten days. The project commenced more than seven weeks ago.
A view inside the new water tank.
The new tank has been put in place to alleviate the future need for water rationing, which has been implemented intermittently over the past few months because of problems ranging from water-production issues to leaks in water lines and drought.
Recently, STUCO also had to deal with a leak at one of its other water tanks. The company was able to make repairs, but due to the presence of chlorine drying out the liner bag a leak still remained.
Besides the construction of the new water storage tank, STUCO has installed new pipelines and a third water plant.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Fred Cuvalay said STUCO is looking forward to putting the new tank into operation within the next two weeks.
“We expect that it will take about eight to 10 days to fill the tank,” Cuvalay said, adding that the interconnecting filling line and distribution line to the tank will be completed within the coming 10 days.
“Until then, we caution that in order to avoid incidental rationing of water we must keep our three older water plants running continuously,” Cuvalay stated.
State Secretary of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Raymond Knops and his delegation toured the location of the new water storage tank during their visit to Statia last week. They entered the tank for an inspection of its interior.
