The Central Water Authority (CWA) has awarded the Rs82 million contract to build a water channel from the Mare Longue reservoir to the Mare aux Vacoas reservoir. Sotravic Ltd. have been told to complete the work within five months. The water channel is part of the plan to alleviate the critical water situation facing the regions being supplied by the Mare aux Vacoas reservoir, which is currently at only 39.2% capacity. The CWA and the employees of Sotravic Ltd will start to conduct a series of site visits to link these two reservoirs.
“We want the work carried out very rapidly to prevent the Mare aux Vacoas dries up completely. The water channel will be 5.4km long and we will start visiting the site by next week,” said the director of the Water Resources Unit, Mr Dev Auckle.
The Ministerial Committee responsible for assessing the water situation last week acknowledged that the Mare aux Vacoas would not be able to supply water to the Central Plateau region until the next rainy season.
The CWA will also start using mobile filters to tap water sources which would be pumped directly into the system to save water which is being supplied by Mare aux Vacoas. The Valetta Lake will also be exploited by the CWA by the use of the mobile filters.
Among the solutions identified by the CWA, other underground water reserves have been spotted in Beaux Songes and Petite Riviere. However, Mr Auckle said that these sources would be used only if other reservoirs on the island attain critical levels.
“We will not use the water from the underground reserves because these two regions are not lacking water currently and our main issue right now is the situation of Mare aux Vacoas and the Central Plateau region,” Mr Auckle said.
By Nitesh Boodhoo