Have you ever thought about touring WEB?

Mariza Garcia thought about it, and called to sign us up for a tour of the water plant.

We showed up on a Thursday morning at 9:20am with closed-toe shoes, long sleeves and long pants and joined two tourist couples on a tour with the fearless Waldo Simpson as our guide.

Water is the most important resource in the world. I recently saw a VICE episode on HBO about the scarcity of water in São Paulo, Brazil and it was scary, because where there is no water, there is no life.

So Waldo, otherwise known for his smooth salsa moves, and cropped short dreadlocks, elaborated on the production of water and showed us the state of the art control room; he also elaborated on the production of electricity and escorted us into that state of the art control room.

Walking up the steel stairs on the grating threads, I had a little case of vertigo; further into that huge hangar of a building I was careful not to walk on the grates for fear my knees will melt. The old Westinghouse turbines are noisy, and we dutifully wore ear plugs for protection.

WEB has been desalinating water and producing electricity since 1932. The company changed technology over time to become more efficient, reducing its consumption of fossil fuel by 50%.

Impressed? I was.

I am not going to bore you by numbers, Waldo did shower us with many, I am only going to mention this: We required 34 million liters of clean, fresh and safe tap water every day. That’s 6 zeros. And the plant has been keeping up with the island’s growth, so far successfully.

As far as electricity is concerned the newer reciprocal engines made a difference, reducing the plant’s dependence on fossil fuel. The island’s experiment with green energy worked out well: The Windmill park at Vaderpiet is working satisfactorily, and so is the airport solar panel project. Then Elmar does the rest and distributes the current into our homes and businesses.

The two tourist couples in our group were obviously more interested in our desalinated water, and that incredible reverse osmosis process that converts sea water into delicious drinking water. They couldn’t figure out why water was sold in bottles on the island why people are buying it.

Good question. Perhaps we should consider an island wide ban.

Anyway, We learned that our water in siphoned in from a well on the bottom of the sea, right across De Palm Island, it is then filtered to remove assorted organisms, and filtered further and further to remove its salinity. It’s then mineralize to improve its taste, then some phosphates are added to the almost finished product to prevent the pipes from corroding, and the whole shebang is UV radiated to kill bacteria, Tada, ready to be pushed to one of seven holding tanks, and from there home, at an appropriate 8.5PH.

No, they do not chlorinate the water but some hotels do for added protection. And you should know that it is scientifically tested every step of the way!

The plant is organized, and the WEB people in their blue coveralls and hard hats go about their business diligently. Just before we left an evacuation drill tested how fast they can haul their butts out the gate in case of emergency.

I found some good clips, show them to your kids.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULD1t7XLNxA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ynf8ys72Iu8&ebc=ANyPxKrx9wc2opkJ6hH10wN1OWH4PnZ00qZXV36fG4V7Fps8RJZH1TOWUZKZLNr_1JnRfVcU_f9p5_6FKGDA7zUTPtHV585jYw

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March 19, 2016
Rona Coster