BELIZE CITY, Mon. Aug 22, 2016–The Belize Water Services (BWS) dispatched roughly 20 workers and deployed a range of equipment in an effort to tackle the unexpected rupturing of its main on the Sandhill route, which left the company’s biggest customer base, totaling about 20,000 customers, without water for most of Sunday.

The areas affected spanned Biscayne and Gardenia off the Philip Goldson Highway, and extended into Belize City as well as locations up to Mile 9 on the George Price Highway.

The company informed us that a 24-inch pipe located near New Moon Restaurant in Ladyville broke. The BWS has yet to determine what caused it, but they have ruled out vandalism, since the pipe was located 10 feet underground.

Amandala spoke with Dave Pascacio, Operations Manager at BWS, who told us that the costly breach of their water supply system occurred about 4:20 a.m. Sunday. The BWS crew began working at 8:00 a.m., and it was not until 9 last night that the problem was fully resolved.

Initially, when the water supply resumed in the City, it was murky. The BWS advises consumers not to drink discolored water and to report it to the company.

Pascacio told us that things are back to normal now.

He indicated that a similar incident had happened about a year ago.