Silly Season

Silly Season. That's what the press calls the month when all the important people go away on holiday. There is no news to report. So, they report silly stories like, “Man bites dog.” It is now only June, but it is silly season in Anguilla. There is nothing worth reporting in the newspapers. Nothing on the radio.

No one has emailed me with any new stories about maladministration in the public service. Nothing about any of the projects being about to fail due to wasteful management. Nothing about the test results on Anguilla's water table.

Was I mistaken, or did I hear on radio a boast from the new water corporation that we are going to abandon the use of desalinized sea water? Desalinized well-water will be cheaper, I heard. We have been consuming desalinized sea water for the past couple of years. Some sixty-five percent (65%) of it is said to be wasted. Illegal hook-ups that we do nothing to prosecute is part of the problem. Leaking joints due to faulty plumbing causes the rest.

Instead, we are going to use the water in Anguilla's water table. I thought we abandoned that resource years ago due to the pollution. Going back to that source will somehow cure the leaking joints?

Hopefully, the leachate problem has been solved. Either that, or, ten years after the change-over, increasing numbers of babies can be expected to be born with three legs and no brain. That won't be silly at all.