Leading Farmer Supports Bath Lodge Backfill

Details

Environment Articles

Tuesday, 19 June 2012 02:30

By Colin Sampson

Antigua St John's - Prominent agriculturalist Alvin Christian, who operates in the Bath Lodge area, has come out in support of the recent backfilling of a pond by the Central Housing & Planning Authority (CHAPA).

Christian, himself a farmer with extensive experience in water harvesting and conservation, identified the pond in question as being artificially created and less than 15 years old. He also posited that the pond was placed incorrectly on a hillside slope, rather than in a gully or other natural collection point.

Molwyn Takes up Cell Tower Issue Antigua St. John's - Senior Member of the Antigua Labour Party (ALP) and Member of Parliament in St. Mary's North Molwyn Joseph has taken up the proli... read more

When the pond was created, says Christian, its improper location initially caused the downhill side to collapse after heavy rains.

The creator of the catchment then consulted Christian, a veteran water-resource manager, for advice on how to avoid a re-occurrence of the mishap. Corrective action was fairly successful, but Christian notes that after heavy rainfall the overflow from the catchment would regularly run over the unpaved road below the pond.

Speaking as a champion of watercourse protection and water conservation, Alvin Christian in principle opposes the backfilling of natural, traditional or properly-engineered water catchments.

However, in the instant case at Bath Lodge he believes that the decision to eliminate an unnecessary and essentially ill-advised artificial pond was a wise one, which he supports under the circumstances.

Christian further observes that the cutting of three new roads above the site of the former catchment in preparation for residential construction will radically reduce the inflow of water to that location, and will serve to generally improve drainage of the area affected.

He also notes that he was able to provide some free technical advice to the operator performing the backfill operation, to ensure that the procedure was properly carried out. Christian, who is extensively engaged in tree crops and food production, pronounced himself fully satisfied with the results of the backfilling, and expects no adverse repercussions whatsoever from the action by CHAPA.

When Caribarena visited the site little evidence remained of the former water catchment except some residual sludge and, poignantly, a few displaced waterfowl. Even an untrained eye could observe the path taken by overflow water, across the lower road and through adjacent residential property.

The creator of the pond had apparently attempted to take advantage of a shallow runnel that had carried runoff down the slope.

The cutting of new roads above, and future housing construction, will eliminate that process. On Thursday morning a backhoe was already at work preparing the foundation for a new home.

In time, as the drying process continues and infrastructural improvements take hold, there will be no evidence that a water catchment was ever at that location.



The core issue appears to be the complete absence of any consultation either between departments within the same ministry (Agriculture, Lands, Housing, Environment, Fisheries), or with the public.

This oversight created fertile ground for public alarm and led to the embarrassing spectacle of divisions within the same government ministry scrambling to account for their lack of information on the matter.

See related stories:

Keep Backfilling Issue on Front Burner

No Consultation on Bath Lodge Backfilling

• < Prev
• Next >