General Manager Bernard Etinoffe says DOWASCO revenue now down to zero after Hurricane Maria

​General Manager Bernard Etinoffe says DOWASCO’s revenue is now down to zero in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. During the government’s press briefing on Monday, he acknowledged that the company had suffered from looting in the wake of the storm. He further noted that there are a number of contractors working for the company across the island, and their expenses had therefore escalated.
 
Etinoffe stated that the cost for just recovery is somewhere in the region of well over $4-million: from various contractors clearing roads, cutting trees, running pipes and things of that nature. “So that kind of escalation in cost, and reduction in revenue, is double jeopardy”.
 
Etinoffe hopes the government will assist DOWASCO in meeting some of these expenses that it must incur, in view of the importance of water. He said “We have seen over the years, that the Government of Dominica really stood firm to the commitment of providing water for every Dominican, and we anticipate that is going to be for some time”.
 
He reaffirmed that the company took a major hit from looting after hurricane Maria, in that tools, generators, water pumps and more, were stolen from their storage and operation center.
 
He informed that the police had recovered some of the items, but the company had to reach out to sister utility agencies and international partners, in the Bahamas and the Caribbean Waste Water Association for donations and chains saws etc, and from whom they received tremendous support amounting to almost everything that they had lost.