WRA Continues to Facilitate Access to Water

The Water Resources Authority (WRA) will continue to facilitate access to water though the implementation of a number of projects, including phase two of the programme to upgrade the national hydrometric network of stream flow and groundwater gauges.
Minister of State for Housing, Transport, Water and Works, Dr. Fenton Ferguson, made the announcement during his contribution to the 2007/08 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representative earlier this week.
He outlined that the scope of work will include the construction of new gauges to increase coverage of the major rivers; the replacement of manual gauges with electronic gauges that will significantly improve accuracy of information; and the opening of blocked monitor wells.
He informed that the government has provided $17 million for the project and together with the allocation in 2006/07, the WRA has a total of $30.5 million for upgrading and modernizing the data collection systems.
Additionally, the WRA has put forward a proposal to ‘Assess the Water Resources of the Cabarita Hydrologic Basin’.
“This project will be completed over the next two years and the initial allocation of $4.2 million has been made in this financial year,” the State Minister informed.
The much anticipated Water Resources Master Plan will also be completed by June of this year.