Beautiful Virgin Islands

Thursday, Oct 30, 2025

Continued overflow of sewerage at Road Reef a health, financial risk

Continued overflow of sewerage at Road Reef a health, financial risk

After years of being left unattended, overflowing sewerage at the entrance of Road Reef is now posing a health and economic risk to operators in the area.

When BVI News visited the area on Monday, raw sewerage was observed gushing from underground through a metal drain cap located just footsteps away from the entrance of a popular food market. The ground nearby was saturated with the potentially disease-causing sewer waters and even human faeces have been said to surface at times.

According to Mark Sanders who partly owns and operates a yacht charter business in the area, the overflowing sewerage has impacted his business as customers feel uncomfortable with the foul smell.

“There are areas within our marina that are rendered unusable because of the stench and contaminated water. I have also seen human waste pooling in the food market parking area — being walked on with shoes [and tread] into the market itself. The near-constant leakage has destroyed the road surface, and when they do manage to stop the leak, the waste dries into toxic dust, which blows everywhere. It is extremely damaging to tourism, it is a public health hazard, and all of us with businesses on Road Reef are sick of having to drive, ride or walk through this nastiness,” Sanders noted.

Years of emails


Our news centre has seen several emails about the problem that Sanders sent to multiple officials to at Ministry of Works & Utilities. Some of these records date back to 2019.

In his latest email to the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Ronald Smith-Berkeley and several others dated October 12, 2021, Sanders issued another complaint about the sewerage problem.

“It is now four days since I reported our last sewerage leak at the entrance to Road Reef. Nothing appears to have been done to rectify this issue, and we now have a lake of foul-smelling water pooling all the way down the entrance road to Road Reef,” he wrote.

“As people have walked, ridden, and driven through this health hazard, and also the close proximity to a food market, I feel it only appropriate that the Environmental Health Department immediately gets involved. This unacceptable situation has been going on for many years now, and it needs proper resolution before somebody gets seriously ill or worse,” Sanders added.

Empty promises?


Smith-Berkeley had promised a little more than a year go to have the problem fixed within the first half of this year.

In that response to one of Sanders’ emails on September 29 2020, Smith- Berkley had stated: “I will simply say that the ministry is working closely with the director and her team at WSD (the Water & Sewerage Department) to permanently resolve these issues. As it relates to the matter of the sewerage at Road Reef, there is a permanent fix in the making but will not come to fruition until Q2 of 2021 approximately”.

Smith-Berkley added the long-term fix should result in the removal of the pump from the middle of the road to facilitate a bigger station with adequate size pumps.

However, Sanders said the situation has yet to be rectified but he hopes it will be addressed soon enough as the tourist season has started.

BVI News tried to contact the minister responsible for works and utilities, Kye Rymer, as well as the Director of the Water and Sewerage Department Pearline Scatliffe-Leonard for comment but up until news time, no response was received.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
UK and Vietnam Sign Landmark Migration Deal to Fast-Track Returns of Irregular Arrivals
UK Drug-Pricing Overhaul Essential for Life-Sciences Ambition, Says GSK Chief
Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie Temporarily Leave the UK Amid Their Parents’ Royal Fallout
UK Weighs Early End to Oil and Gas Windfall Tax as Reeves Seeks Investment Commitments
UK Retail Inflation Slows as Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since Spring
Next Raises Full-Year Profit Guidance After Strong Third-Quarter Performance
Reform UK’s Lee Anderson Admits to 'Gaming' Benefits System While Advocating Crackdown
United States and South Korea Conclude Major Trade Accord Worth $350 Billion
Hurricane Melissa Strikes Cuba After Devastating Jamaica With Record Winds
Vice President Vance to Headline Turning Point USA Campus Event at Ole Miss
U.S. Targets Maritime Narco-Routes While Border Pressure to Mexico Remains Limited
Bill Gates at 70: “I Have a Real Fear of Artificial Intelligence – and Also Regret”
Elon Musk Unveils Grokipedia: An AI-Driven Alternative to Wikipedia
Saudi Arabia Unveils Vision for First-Ever "Sky Stadium" Suspended Over Desert Floor
Amazon Announces 14 000 Corporate Job Cuts as AI Investment Accelerates
UK Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since March, Food Leads the Decline
London Stock Exchange Group ADR (LNSTY) Earns Zacks Rank #1 Upgrade on Rising Earnings Outlook
Soap legend Tony Adams, long-time star of Crossroads, dies at 84
Rachel Reeves Signals Tax Increases Ahead of November Budget Amid £20-50 Billion Fiscal Gap
NatWest Past Gains of 314% Spotlight Opportunity — But Some Key Risks Remain
UK Launches ‘Golden Age’ of Nuclear with £38 Billion Sizewell C Approval
UK Announces £1.08 Billion Budget for Offshore Wind Auction to Boost 2030 Capacity
UK Seeks Steel Alliance with EU and US to Counter China’s Over-Capacity
UK Struggles to Balance China as Both Strategic Threat and Valued Trading Partner
Argentina’s Markets Surge as Milei’s Party Secures Major Win
British Journalist Sami Hamdi Detained by U.S. Authorities After Visa Revocation Amid Israel-Gaza Commentary
King Charles Unveils UK’s First LGBT+ Armed Forces Memorial at National Memorial Arboretum
At ninety-two and re-elected: Paul Biya secures eighth term in Cameroon amid unrest
Racist Incidents Against UK Nurses Surge by 55%
UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves Cites Shared Concerns With Trump Administration as Foundation for Early US-UK Trade Deal
Essentra plc: A Closer Look at a UK ‘Penny Stock’ Opportunity Amid Market Weakness
U.S. and China Near Deal to Avert Rare-Earth Export Controls Ahead of Trump-Xi Summit
Justin time: Justin Herbert Shields Madison Beer with Impressive Reflex at Lakers Game
Russia’s President Putin Declares Burevestnik Nuclear Cruise Missile Ready for Deployment
Giuffre’s Memoir Alleges Maxwell Claimed Sexual Act with Clooney
House Republicans Move to Strip NYC Mayoral Front-Runner Zohran Mamdani of U.S. Citizenship
Record-High Spoiled Ballots Signal Voter Discontent in Ireland’s 2025 Presidential Election
Philippines’ Taal Volcano Erupts Overnight with 2.4 km Ash Plume
Albania’s Virtual AI 'Minister' Diella Set to 'Birth' Eighty-Three Digital Assistants for MPs
Tesla Unveils Vision for Optimus V3 as ‘Biggest Product of All Time’, Including Surgical Capabilities
Francis Ford Coppola Auctions Luxury Watches After Self-Financed Film Flop
Convicted Sex Offender Mistakenly Freed by UK Prison Service Arrested in London
United States and China Begin Constructive Trade Negotiations Ahead of Trump–Xi Summit
U.S. Treasury Sanctions Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro over Drug-Trafficking Allegations
Miss USA Crowns Nebraska’s Audrey Eckert Amid Leadership Overhaul
‘I Am Not Done’: Kamala Harris Signals Possible 2028 White House Run
NBA Faces Integrity Crisis After Mass Arrests in Gambling Scandal
Swift Heist at the Louvre Sees Eight French Crown Jewels Stolen in Under Seven Minutes
U.S. Halts Trade Talks with Canada After Ontario Ad Using Reagan Voice Triggers Diplomatic Fallout
Microsoft AI CEO: ‘We’re making an AI that you can trust your kids to use’ — but can Microsoft rebuild its own trust before fixing the industry’s?
×