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water <strong>and</strong> Provo Water is in charge of the distribution (Kairi Consultants Limited, 2000a; ECLAC, 2008).<br />
Brackish ground water is treated at the reverse osmosis desalination plants. Currently, the production <strong>and</strong><br />
storage of water in these isl<strong>and</strong>s is about 2.3 million gallons per day <strong>and</strong> its dem<strong>and</strong> reaches 10 to 11<br />
million gallons per month (ECLAC, 2008). In terms of tourism, 87% of hotel rooms are located in<br />
Providenciales <strong>and</strong> as such the greatest water dem<strong>and</strong> for the sector may be associated with this (DEPS,<br />
2009). The tourism sector places one of the greatest dem<strong>and</strong>s on water resources <strong>and</strong> sewerage facilities in<br />
<strong>Turks</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Caicos</strong> (Bennett et al., 2002). There were 255,000 ‘stay over’ visitors to <strong>Turks</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Caicos</strong> in 2009,<br />
the great majority originating from the United States of America (BCQS, 2010). Increased pollution in the<br />
coastal zone has been attributed to the tourism sector as well as rising population of the country (Bennett,<br />
et al., 2002).<br />
There are acute shortages on Gr<strong>and</strong> Turk, South <strong>Caicos</strong> <strong>and</strong> Salt Cay, leading to interruptions to the water<br />
supply (Kairi Consultants Limited, 2000a). Due to its topography <strong>and</strong> geology, in Gr<strong>and</strong> Turk surface water<br />
does not form a source of water; the main fresh water source is rain water. In the isl<strong>and</strong>, collection systems<br />
for rain water are well developed, consisting mainly of roof catchments, gutters <strong>and</strong> cisterns. Across the<br />
isl<strong>and</strong> there are also 27 tanks with a storage capacity of 5 million gallons, used for the collection <strong>and</strong><br />
storage of water from three major ground catchments, two minor ones <strong>and</strong> roof catchments. In addition,<br />
reverse osmosis plants are also used for water supply. In 2000, Gr<strong>and</strong> Turk had three reverse osmosis<br />
plants with a per-capita production capacity of around 136 litres per day. In Gr<strong>and</strong> Turk some areas are<br />
supplied with salt water for flushing purposes, <strong>and</strong> there is an interest in making m<strong>and</strong>atory the<br />
implementation of both potable water <strong>and</strong> unmetered salt water domestic connections (Monteagudo <strong>and</strong><br />
Miquel, 2000). Ground water is not used as a fresh water source in Gr<strong>and</strong> Turk. This brackish water is<br />
currently used only for cattle watering.<br />
Regarding sewerage, only around 7.5% of toilets are connected to a central sewer system, predominantly in<br />
areas of high economic status. For the poorest of the population, only 33.8% of have their sanitation<br />
facilities connected to septic tanks, with 62.4% using pit latrines; in the high income population, 72% use<br />
septic tanks <strong>and</strong> only 9% pit latrines. In Providenciales, the most urbanised of the isl<strong>and</strong>s, pit latrines are<br />
used by 30% of the overall population. Shared sanitation facilities are used by 28% of the population rising<br />
to 37.1% for the poor population (Kairi Consultants Limited, 2000a)<br />
Only 27.7% of wells <strong>and</strong> tanks for water collection <strong>and</strong> storage are public, thus, private supply of water is<br />
common among households (63.6%). Among the poor population, a much greater proportion (51.6%)<br />
depend on public storage systems including wells <strong>and</strong> tanks, compared to 44.6% utilising a private supply<br />
(Kairi Consultants Limited, 2000a).<br />
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