Residents across a swath of communities relying on Grays Hill Reservoir for their daily water needs are facing service interruptions and reduced water pressure this week, after an overnight leak on a key supply line cut inflows to the storage facility, the Antigua Public Utilities Authority (APUA) Water Business Unit announced Friday.
Grays Hill Reservoir, which supplies water to more than a dozen populated areas across the island, depends on combined output from two regional reverse osmosis facilities: the Ffryes and Barnacle Point plants. Both operations are tasked with serving multiple customer zones across Antigua, meaning coordinated water deliveries from both sites are required to keep the reservoir filled to levels that can meet consistent consumer demand.
During routine overnight infrastructure monitoring, utility crews detected the unplanned leak along the main supply pipeline running from the Ffryes Reverse Osmosis Plant to the reservoir. The breach has reduced the total volume of treated water reaching the storage facility, dragging storage levels down below the threshold needed to maintain normal pressure and uninterrupted service for customers in the Grays Hill service area.
The communities already experiencing degraded water service include St. John’s City and its outlying neighborhoods, Michael’s Village, Camacho Avenue, Lower Ottos, Nut Grove, Cooks, the corridor stretching from Grays Farm to Five Islands, and Denfields. APUA’s maintenance crews have scheduled full repair work to take place throughout the day of the announcement, targeting a fast resolution to the leak.
Once repairs are fully completed, utility teams will immediately ramp up efforts to replenish Grays Hill Reservoir’s storage levels, with the goal of gradually restoring full normal water service to all affected communities in the reservoir’s service zone.
Because the broken water main is located along the island’s southern supply route, additional temporary disruptions will be felt by customers outside the Grays Hill service area during repair work. All zones running from Ffryes Junction to Big Creek—including Orange Valley, Jennings, and Bolans—will see their water service cut temporarily while crews work to seal the leak.
In a public statement released alongside the service alert, APUA apologized sincerely to all impacted residents for the inconvenience brought on by the unplanned outage, and thanked customers for their patience and understanding as crews work to resolve the infrastructure issue as quickly as possible.