By Aabigayle McIntosh

The state utility company Antigua Public Utilities Authority (APUA) is optimistic that by next year the distribution of water will be normalized for the benefit of the entire country.

However, it will take robust efforts on the part of the country.

Manager of the APUA Water Business Ian Lewis said this is a part of the company’s long-term goal.

“Along with that goal, there are other parameters that we will pull along for example we have aged piping that is causing us to lose water via leaks, which needs to be addressed and we also need to address our billing system,” Lewis said following a tour of the Fort James Reverse Osmosis Plant on Monday.

“We are also looking at migrating to what is called smart metering so that we can bill our customers accurately. We do have quite a bit of meter within our system that will not give the correct billing”.

The re-commissioning of existing plants is also expected to be added to improvements that will be made at a later date.

Lewis said that once they have the Bethesda Plant available that will take care of the production of water on the Eastern side of the island. This includes Willikies, Freetown, Bethesda, Piccadilly, English Harbour and Liberta.

“The existing plants that we have will be concentrated more on St Johns and the western sides of the island. That part is probably 85 to 95 percent completed, the percentage completion in terms of piping upgrade we are awaiting funding from a local bank,” Lewis said.

He also explained that this is a similar process for smart metering.