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BWS responds to reports of sediment and discoloured buildup in water filters 

Questions about the quality of water reaching homes and businesses are getting a response from Belize Water Services. Love News first reported concerns from several business operators who said they were finding heavy sediment and discoloured buildup in filters and equipment connected to the BWS supply. Businessman Michael Singh first brought the issue into the public eye after sharing photographs of a heavily discoloured filter. Since then, Ernest Bradley reported having to replace his filters more frequently, Jeremy Spooner said he found about a quarter inch of mud in filters used for ice and coffee, and Andre Augustus Pitts said sediment had affected his ice machine, costing him about five hundred dollars a month in servicing. Today, Love News took those concerns directly to BWS. Quality Compliance Manager Hugo Rancharan says the company has considered several possible explanations for what is being found, but says more work is needed to establish the cause.

Hugo Rancharan, Quality Compliance Manager: “First of all, we take each complaint seriously. We haven’t had a formal complaint as far as I know into our system that would trigger what we call a water quality complaint investigation. So I would advise the customer to please call us for us to do a complete analysis of whatever problems he may have and then render some kind of results at the end of that. Procedure is that we will visit the premises and look at whatever system they have in place and for whatever reasons the person might have filtered water or really purify the water from BWS source. So that’s the process that we encourage them to do to take at the moment. We source our water from the Belize River and we go through a convention water treatment plant process and then from there it goes through disinfection then distribution. At the distribution level unfortunately for Belize City we do have some aging infrastructure and then it’s prone to a lot of breakages either unknown or known and then that would introduce some kind of sediments within the water distribution system. So that could be a possible cause. There’s also causes within the homeowner itself that the plumbing maybe, they may have internal leakage inside or they may use storage tanks that are adequately constructed or designed to hold a type of water. In quality control tests we do ensure that the process, the lab process itself from sample collection to sample reception to sample analysis and sample reporting is done with due process according to the ISO 17-025 accreditation which we are currently undergoing and hence we have beefed up our reporting process in terms of looking at the analytical procedure etc in terms that we because we follow the standard methods for water/ waste water analysis it’s a handbook that everybody knows that has procedures, etc. established procedures that one has to follow in terms of ensuring quality assurance.”

And while those possibilities are being considered, BWS says the issue cannot be attributed to one source without going through the proper investigative process.  Chief Operations Officer Sanjay Keshwani also addressed the concerns of the business owners. 

Sanjay Keshwan, Chief Operations Officer, BWS: “Now, with the naked eye some soluble particle you won’t able to see it even when water is treated. Right? With naked eye you will see the water is clean and it’s clear and it’s safe for potable. But now, example if you are wearing a white shirt every day and you don’t wash it for months, you will see it start to get messy or dirty. The same concept apply for the filter. If you choose to put the filter on the BWS water even the water is clear those filters have small pores just like our clothes. So eventually those filter will start to get dirty. A few things my colleague has mentioned that somehow some sediments introduced into the system because of breakage and all those things plus over period of time because of the slow movement of the water into the system those soluble particles start to settle as well and those type of things can happen.”

BWS says it has seen the reports circulating publicly, but at the time of the interview had not received a formal complaint through its established channels. Therefore, the source and composition of the material found in the filters have not been independently confirmed.