Nevis set to achieve milestone with rapid work on its 1st Desalination Plant

St. Kitts and Nevis: Minister of Communications Spencer Brand along with Director of Integrated Water Resource Management, Floyd Robinson toured the site of desalination plant in Nevis. Robinson was thrilled to share that the journey towards sustainable energy has reached a significant milestone with rapid work at the site. 

He mentioned that the hard work and dedication of the incredible team are truly paying off, as he can see tangible advancements every day. 

The project is funded by the UAE, and 16 islands in the Caribbean, including St Kitts and Nevis, were able to get grant funding to assemble this type of project. The team hopes that by the end of June, the project will be up and fully running, and citizens will be able to have an additional 50,000 gallons per day in the system. 

The plant is being built on the eastern side of the island just downhill from Butlers and as of now, the wells for the desal plant are being worked on. Director Robinson added, “The water that’s going to be extracted is the salt water and then the actual plant that separates the salt from the water is another 300 or 500ft uphill. This is part of the program in terms of getting more water into the system.”

He also mentioned that as most of the islands in the Caribbean, the whole world actually to climate change is suffering with water supply anyway, through the Caribbean everybody is crying which is why his team is trying to do their part in supplying water for the island of Nevis. 

Robinson further continued to mention that the pumps and filters will be assembled and when it comes to osmosis, the team is trying to just remove the sale from the seawater and come up with fresh water. 

While explaining the process of acquiring the water, he said, “High pressure pumps going to push that salt water through some membranes. The salt will be left behind. The water comes through. And then from that point we’re going to have a couple of tanks. So the water does not go directly into the system. It goes into some holding tanks first where that will be tested, making sure that it’s fit for potable use. And then from those tanks it will be sent into our system for distribution.“

In addition to this, Minister Brand said that he was delighted to see that the team is making some good progress on the Desalination Plant in Nevis and added. “As Mr. Robinson would have indicated, we continue to face some challenges with our water supply here on the island, and we are definitely eager to see this particular project, Common Line, that will create some relief here for the people of Nevis.”

He also expressed his gratitude to Robinson as the head of the Integrated Water Resource Management Unit here on the island for his involvement and added, “We continue to hope that we can see this particular project come online as quickly as possible.”