The BWA has confirmed it has been experiencing and repairing a higher-than-usual number of burst mains over the past few weeks, and this has impacted the water supply to several communities in St. Joseph and St. George.
These burst mains, leaking valves and hydrants, especially within these parishes impact the entire water distribution systems resulting in low water pressure and outages to residents.
Charles Leslies, Director of Engineering, BWA, explained that, “Over the last few weeks our teams have conducted investigations to identify leaks which have been contributing to these outages.” “However in the interim the leaks have at times lead to low water levels at some of our reservoirs and customer outages.” He added “Our teams are constantly conducting leak detection exercises which revealed several instances of water loss from service pipes, leaking mains, valves and hydrants.”
Mr. Leslie confirmed that many of the ruptures were underground and did not reach the surface for easy reporting, therefore requiring the use of special leak detection equipment and research by the BWA team.
The BWA reported that between April 1st and 10th, 2026 they were 12 incidents of burst mains, leaking valves and hydrants in St. George alone. Additionally, for the first three months of this year, there have been approximately 40 incidents of burst mains, leaking valves and hydrants detected and repaired in St. Joseph. (ENDS)