Sept / Oct 2016 | Business View Caribbean

30 September 2016 - Business View Caribbean Business View Caribbean - September 2016 31 On Grand Cayman, the Water Authority currently owns four RO plants, two of which are located in George Town and have capacities of 5,000 and 6,000 cubic meters per day. Another, in Lower Valley, operates at 3,000 cubic meters per day, and the North Side plant produces 9,000 cubic meters per day. The water pro- duced by these RO plants is stored in 8 reservoirs, which have a total storage capacity of 51,100 m3 or 13.5 million US gallons. The Water Authority’s Grand Cayman Water Distribution system presently compris- es 300 miles of pipe work, varying in size between 3 inches and 16 inches. “In Cayman Brac, it’s a little different,” van Zanten says. “It’s a smaller island with about 2,000 people. We started there with a small RO plant and a very small distribution system in 1991. The rest of the is- land was covered by five water trucks that we own and operate. Historically, it was about 50 percent pipeline, 50 percent trucks. And that lasted for quite some time. Two years ago, we started expanding our distribution system in Cayman Brac and, hopefully, in about ten or twelve years’ time, we’ll have that entire island cov- ered with piped water, as well. “There’s also a small island, Little Cayman, which has only a few hundred permanent residents who rely on tourism, and we will have a small plant on that island as well and we will truck the water to various custom- ers, because, based on the number of customers we would have there, and the size of the island, it isn’t economically feasible to provide piped water to that island.” Regarding wastewater, in 1988, the Water Authority completed the construction of the West Bay Beach Sewerage System, which provided for the collection of wastewater from the main tourist area along Seven