The Bottom, Saba – The water filling station in Windwardside is operational; water trucks can now fill up at this location to supply water to the villages of Windwardside and Hell’s Gate instead of having to fill up in The Bottom and making the drive uphill.

The new filling station in Windwardside is similar to the first one in The Bottom, which became operational in 2018. It is part of the larger water project funded by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management to install a water pipe system on Saba and to make quality water accessible and affordable for the people.

The new filling station located at the big parking lot in Windwardside, has a considerable size cistern underneath, divided into three compartments. Under the supervision of the Planning Bureau of the Public Entity Saba, one compartment has been thoroughly cleaned and sealed off so it can store water.

The waterpipe was extended to Windwardside early 2019. The works included the construction of a cistern and pumping station next to Lollipop’s, which was officially opened by Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management Cora van Nieuwenhuizen and Commissioner Bruce Zagers early May 2019.

The extended waterpipe will bring the water to the cistern underneath the parking lot via an automated system whereby the flow is coming into Windwardside in a controlled manner. The processed water from the Reverse Osmosis (RO) plant in Fort Bay, comes up to Windwardside through an ingenious system of cisterns and pump stations at different locations.

The first phase was the installation of the pipeline from Fort Bay to The Bottom, the pump stations at Fort Bay, The Bottom, the cistern in the Range, and the filling station in The Bottom. The second phase to further transport the water closer to the people consisted of extending the pipeline to Windwardside and pumping the water via the pumphouse at Lollipops.

At Lollipop’s, there are two pumps: one pumps the water to Windwardside, and the other pumps the water to the new water bottling plant, which should become operational by this summer.

The renewed water plant upstairs in the concrete building at Fort Bay, operational since last year June, produces some 35,000 gallons water per day. So far, over approximately two years, more than 7.4 million gallons of water have been pumped from the Fort Bay plant to The Bottom and Windwardside.

The water project is considered a highly successful project that has reduced the cost of water dramatically. “We thank the Dutch Government and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, and also Vitens Evides for their assistance,” said Commissioner Zagers.

The RO water supplied via the pipeline system is not drinking water. For the supply of good quality affordable drinking water on Saba, the Ministry is supporting the Public Entity with another water project, which is the installation of a drinking water bottling plant.