Inter-American Development Bank
facebook
twitter
youtube
linkedin
instagram
Abierto al públicoBeyond BordersCaribbean Development TrendsCiudades SosteniblesEnergía para el FuturoEnfoque EducaciónFactor TrabajoGente SaludableGestión fiscalGobernarteIdeas MatterIdeas que CuentanIdeaçãoImpactoIndustrias CreativasLa Maleta AbiertaMoviliblogMás Allá de las FronterasNegocios SosteniblesPrimeros PasosPuntos sobre la iSeguridad CiudadanaSostenibilidadVolvamos a la fuente¿Y si hablamos de igualdad?Home
Citizen Security and Justice Creative Industries Development Effectiveness Early Childhood Development Education Energy Envirnment. Climate Change and Safeguards Fiscal policy and management Gender and Diversity Health Labor and pensions Open Knowledge Public management Science, Technology and Innovation  Trade and Regional Integration Urban Development and Housing Water and Sanitation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Caribbean Development Trends

  • HOME
  • CATEGORIES
    • Agribusiness
    • Antigua and Barbuda
    • Barbados
    • BehaviorChange
    • Belize
    • Bermuda
    • biodiversity
    • Blockchain
    • Caribbean
    • Caribbean Culture and Media
    • Climate Change
    • Creative Economy
    • Crime Prevention and Citizen Security
    • Data and Knowledge
    • De-risking
    • Dominica
    • Dutch
    • Early Childhood Development
    • Economic Growth
    • Education Policy
    • energy
    • entrepreneurship
    • Environmental and Climate Change
    • Events
    • Extractives
    • Finance
    • Fiscal Rules
    • gender
    • Governance and Regulatory Policy Reforms
    • Grenada
    • Guyana
    • Haiti
    • Health
    • Health Policy
    • Hurricane
    • Hurricane Irma
    • infrastructure
    • Innovation and change
    • Intellectual Property
    • IWD
    • Jamaica
    • JumpCaribbean
    • Labor
    • Labour Markets
    • MOOC
    • Music
    • Natural Disasters
    • Nurturing Institutions
    • OECS
    • Podcast
    • Poverty
    • Private Sector and Entrepreneurship
    • Saint Kitts and Nevis
    • Saint Lucia
    • Saint Vincent and Grenadines
    • skills
    • Sports for Development
    • Suriname
    • Technology
    • The Bahamas
    • The Blue Economy
    • Transportation
    • Tourism
    • Trinidad and Tobago
    • Uncategorized
    • VAWG
    • Webinar
    • women
    • Women for Change
    • youth
  • Country Offices
    • Bahamas
    • Barbados
    • Guyana
    • Jamaica
    • Suriname
    • Trinidad and Tobago
  • Press Releases
    • Bahamas
    • Barbados
    • Guyana
    • Jamaica
    • Suriname
    • Trinidad and Tobago
  • Authors

Domburg: a water-doomed community? It does not seem so…

November 11, 2013 by Leave a Comment


 

Just 20 kilometers to the south of Suriname’s capital, Paramaribo, lies the community of Domburg. With its 5.700 residents, this is one of the communities in the districts of Wanica and Para that has not had access to reliable potable drinking water services in 40 years. Although the infrastructure for water provision is in place, the amount of water being produced has been insufficient to meet the demand. Also, the unreliable supply has brought about a slow but steady degradation of the distribution network. To have access to water, the residents dig their own wells, harvest rain water or pay for trucks to deliver water to their homes, which can be 10 times more expensive than tap water.

In recent newspaper articles (de Ware Tijd) residents have voiced their discontent with the situation stating “we pina lek dagu. Watra srefi no de” translated: “we are deeply suffering from the lack of water”.

Rain Harvesting in Domburg2

How to address the situation after 40 years? Is it even possible?

In March 2012, the responsibility for water provision in Domburg was taken over by the N.V. Surinaamsche Waterleiding Maatschappij (SWM, in English: the Suriname Water Company), a state owned company. In order to provide the community of Domburg with potable water, the SWM embraced a staged-approach: as a first step, an extra well was dug at the pumpstation Livorno, to enable the station to provide extra water to Domburg. The second step will involve increasing the drinking water production at the pumping station of La Vigilantia, which lies a bit further to the south, from 200 -250 m3/hour to approximately 450 m3/hour. In the third step, the extra water produced at this station will be transported to the  Domburg area  to fulfill the present and future water demands of the community. Furthermore, the SWM plans to rehabilitate the current distribution network.

This is great news for the Domburg residents. What is also good news is that part of the works will be financed through the US$12 million “Water Supply Infrastructure Rehabilitation” program financed by the Inter-American Development Bank. Funds from the Bank will be specifically used to finance the deeper laying of pipes (in order to avoid the current pipes from being damaged); the rehabilitation of older pipelines in the Domburg area; and the upgrade of the transmission lines between the stations of La Vigilantia and Livorno.

The Domburg residents have started hoping for the better. It turns out that thanks to some good long-term planning and solid cooperation, they might have a good reason to do so!

Rain Harvesting in Domburg


Filed Under: Climate Change & Environment, Suriname Tagged With: Domburg, infrastructure, La Vigilantia, Paramaribo, pipes, potable water, rain water, Suriname, water

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Follow Us

Subscribe

Search

Caribbean Dev Trends

We provide unique and timely insights on the Caribbean and its political, social, and economic development. At the IDB, we strive to improve lives in the Caribbean by creating vibrant and resilient economies where people are safe, productive and happy.

Similar posts

  • Moving towards better potable water services
  • EPO for development…Does it work? Is it legal?
  • Improving Rural Electrification in Suriname
  • The bucket challenge in Jamaica
  • An Example of Climate and Energy Resilience for the Caribbean

Footer

Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo
facebook
twitter
youtube
youtube
youtube

    Blog posts written by Bank employees:

    Copyright © Inter-American Development Bank ("IDB"). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons IGO 3.0 Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives. (CC-IGO 3.0 BY-NC-ND) license and may be reproduced with attribution to the IDB and for any non-commercial purpose. No derivative work is allowed. Any dispute related to the use of the works of the IDB that cannot be settled amicably shall be submitted to arbitration pursuant to the UNCITRAL rules. The use of the IDB's name for any purpose other than for attribution, and the use of IDB's logo shall be subject to a separate written license agreement between the IDB and the user and is not authorized as part of this CC- IGO license. Note that link provided above includes additional terms and conditions of the license.


    For blogs written by external parties:

    For questions concerning copyright for authors that are not IADB employees please complete the contact form for this blog.

    The opinions expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the IDB, its Board of Directors, or the countries they represent.

    Attribution: in addition to giving attribution to the respective author and copyright owner, as appropriate, we would appreciate if you could include a link that remits back the IDB Blogs website.



    Privacy Policy

    Copyright © 2025 · Magazine Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

    Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo

    Aviso Legal

    Las opiniones expresadas en estos blogs son las de los autores y no necesariamente reflejan las opiniones del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo, sus directivas, la Asamblea de Gobernadores o sus países miembros.

    facebook
    twitter
    youtube