September 2021

We often take for granted a simple yet essential resource like water. Newport helps to make purified drinking water easily accessible in your homes, offices and even public spaces through Hydrate Barbados. Nonetheless, there are still millions of people worldwide who do not have this means. Water plays a vital role in our health, our environment and every aspect of our day to day lives. So, this World Water Day, we are asking you to do three simple things:1) Pledge to drink at least 8 glasses of water every day this week2) Make an extra effort to avoid wasting water3) Tag a friend to join you, then share photos to show us how you are valuing water in honour of World Water Day! #WorldWaterDay #WorldWaterDay2021 #newportwater

The ongoing battle to combat COVID-19 in Barbados has strongly reinforced the need to make clean, drinking water easily accessible to everyone. Despite setbacks in recent months, the Hydrate Barbados team at Newport Water has held the relentless and prevailing outlook that this current situation will pass and in fact that there is a strong bounce back coming. As we continue to turn the corner, we are now able to safely launch our 7th Hydrate Barbados station on the Hastings Boardwalk. Sponsor, Consolidated Finance have been eagerly awaiting its installation to ensure that the many patrons who utilize this boardwalk daily can have free access to this vital resource. The Hydrate Barbados programme seeks to empower individuals and corporations to be champions for change and foster good habits, as we continue to support the sustainable development goal 6 of water and sanitation for all by 2030. We at Newport Water are privileged to work with and share the optimism of like-minded organizations like sponsor, Consolidated Finance and the National Conservation Commission, who have graciously allowed our second public station to be placed here. Through this partnership, we are giving people the very best in amenities, protecting our environment and making Barbados a world-class place to live, work and play. World Water Day On Monday, March 22, we marked World Water Day with a theme of “Valuing Water”, and with the timing of launching this station, we felt the need to offer more. We have specially included alkaline water at this refill point, which has a higher pH level than regular drinking water. The health benefits range from improving metabolism, digestion, and bone health, to slowing aging and offering other detoxifying properties. We observed that even throughout the period of national pause, persons continued to frequent the Hastings Boardwalk for the purpose of daily exercise and wellness, so we know that the users of this new hydration station will utilize it wisely and seek to avoid wasting this precious and limited resource. Our other stations in 5 schools and 1 public space have made an immeasurable impact over the past year, reaching 83,746 bottle fills thus far. This number would have been considerably higher if our students had not unfortunately been schooling remotely this past term. Nevertheless, sponsors of these stations, Barbados Public Workers Co-operative Credit Union, First Caribbean International Bank and Rock Hard Cement, have maintained their commitment to supporting, impacting and enhancing our communities across Barbados. Witnessing students and individuals quickly develop the habit of walking with their reusable water bottles and filling up daily, after having their station installed, has proven the value of the Hydrate Barbados Programme to these organizations. They have never surrendered their mission throughout this pandemic. We all remain optimistic and future-focused as we have another planned launch in the Constitution River Bus Terminal in just two weeks and continue to seek out sponsors for other promising locations, like Sheraton Mall.

Over the past year, we have seen how a virus like COVID-19 can disrupt the way how we think and operate. The adverse effects on persons with co-morbidities like diabetes, as well as the risk for severe illness increasing with age, has not boded well for countries such as Barbados, which has a high elderly population and where non communicable diseases already account for 83% of the country’s deaths. Today, World Health Day, we at Newport Water are delighted to partner with Massy Card and Transport Authority to provide an essential public amenity by means of this Hydrate Barbados water station. The aim of the Hydrate Barbados Programme has been not only reducing plastic waste in the environment, but to encourage healthier lifestyles and habits across our nation. Massy Card has come on board to sponsor this water station here in a crucial location like the Constitution River Bus Terminal, which can see foot traffic in the thousands each day. Together for a fairer, healthier world Following the theme of “Together for a fairer, healthier world”, “the World Health Organization (WHO) calls for urgent action to eliminate health inequities and mobilize action to attain better health for all and leave no one behind”. Everyone deserves access to water, whether it be our kids at school, the tourists visiting and walking along the Hastings Boardwalk, or the general Barbadian public in this bus terminal and other key locations. Water woes are no stranger to Barbadians, and because Newport cannot do it alone, we call on all our partners and clients to ensure that no one is left behind. Every refill at a station like this is one less single use plastic bottle in a gutter, dumped on a beach or a public space, but it also means persons are choosing water as their drink of choice, and this helps in combatting the consumption of sugar sweetened beverages, which are contributing to the high NCD rates and obesity in our island. As we launch our 8th Hydrate Barbados station today, it means that people in Barbados can more easily access water when they’re out and about on their daily business. And there’s no need to worry about the station’s safety or sanitization, as it’s completely contactless due to our foot pedal water dispensing innovation. We are one step closer in our effort to eliminate health inequalities by making world-class amenities available to every local and tourist alike. We trust that the public will utilize the station wisely.

Even in the face of a global pandemic, Newport Water Hydrate Barbados programme has been serving our communities. With 8 water stations being deployed at schools and public spaces across the island in the past year, the stations this week surpassed a major milestone of 100 000 bottle fills. Today, our island premier medical facility, the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, unveiled the 9th hydration station, thanks to our sponsor. .   The addition to the QEH comes after numerous calls this past week for an urgent response to non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Due largely to COVID-19 and its adverse effects on persons living with NCDs, these diseases have resulted in ramped up efforts to protect Barbados most vulnerable.   While one aim of the Hydrate Barbados programme is to protect the environment by way of reducing plastic pollution, more significantly, Newport and our partners recognize the impact we can and have made towards encouraging the adoption of healthier habits in our citizens. Sugar sweetened beverages are one of the key culprits that increase the incidence of nutrition-related non-communicable diseases like diabetes and obesity. Unveilving the station with PCSI at the QEH. Celebrating 100,000 bottle fills. Everyone was happy about the new addition. Make the healthy choice, the easy choice The healthcare, financial and economic costs of these diseases are too high. The education campaigns have been frequent and relentless, but the most effective way to bring about behavioral change is to provide the resources for people to make better choices. We must make the healthy choice the easy choice. When presented with the option of dispensing free water to hydrate on a hot day, there is no need to spend money to purchase a sugar sweetened beverage which offers no nutritional value.   100 000 bottle fills is no small feat. It means that Barbadians are remembering to walk with their reusable water bottles daily and are purposefully filling up with water at our Hydrate Barbados stations  making the healthy choice, says Marketing Executive at Newport Water, Alicia Barrow. We are happy to partner with Pharmacy Sales Caribbean whose offerings align with what we are trying to achieve here with this programme. By sponsoring this station at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, they are making a vital resource readily available to the public for free. We cannot thank them enough for coming on board.   Now is the time to come together to make our environments healthier spaces for us to live and work. Combined efforts by socially conscious companies will aid the government in this fight. Pharmacy Sales Caribbean donation today by way of this station is adding to a network that we will continue to grow until purified drinking water is easily accessible to everyone across this island.