Beautiful Virgin Islands

Thursday, Oct 30, 2025

Poorly-laid pipes now costing $2M to fix! Problem ignored since 'it wasn't a good look at election time'

Poorly-laid pipes now costing $2M to fix! Problem ignored since 'it wasn't a good look at election time'

Pipes which were reportedly laid incorrectly around the time of the territory’s last General Election is now costing the Andrew Fahie-led administration $2 million to rectify.

Speaking in the House of Assembly Monday, June 22, Premier Fahie said the pipes were laid as part of road works that were done on the eastern end of Tortola under the previous NDP administration.

The Premier claimed that authorities were fully aware of the faulty piping but did not fix the issue, “because it wouldn’t look good during election time”.

“So the same roads up East that have been paved, when we start to dig them up they are going to start to get ahead of us with the ‘street melee’. But, the fact is there were issues with the project, and it was found out but they kept going. Now we have to find a fresh $2 million to deal with this because the problems up in East End/Long Look are horrible,” Fahie stated.

He continued: “Now we have to find the money to fix the Irma problems and fix the COVID-19 problems, fix the Jost Van Dyke’s problems, fix the sewerage in East End. All or most of the money was already allocated either through loans, grants or whatever the case may be and they weren’t done. I am not saying this out of politics, it’s just a fact.”

The Premier said this new information surfaced while the government was trying to regularize some old financial accounts.


Discrepancies

According to the Premier, the Auditor General’s Report for 2015 - which was only recently tabled in the House - also uncovered a number of discrepancies in projects done that year.

In terms of quality of work, the Premier said there is not much to show for the millions the previous NDP government sourced from the Social Security Board to conduct those projects.

“We are no better off with the roads. Show me any road right now that we can say we are glad that this $16 million has done. Maybe one or two are a little better but hardly anything to show,” Fahie said.

In statements seemingly directed at current Opposition legislators who were part of the previous NDP government, the Premier added: “When you (my administration) go to get the grant for the people to help them in a meaningful way, then you have the same people who took it to do other things with now trying to lead a charge with others that you (my administration) ‘raided the SSB’. We didn’t raid it. We went to get help for the people,” he argued.

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?
×