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Anyone else staying in Orient Village having water issues? We’ve not had any since this morning

Le Pélican Saint-Martin
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Major drinking water distribution system

The informs its users that due to leaks on the water system, disruptions and pressure drops can be felt throughout the island this Friday, February 28th all day.
The calls on the population to " limit their drinking water " and says " to implement all the means necessary to restore the situation as soon as possible and requests its users to excuse them for the inconvenience ".

Well we are well into the evening and have plenty of drinking water (in bottles) just no water to flush toilet

No water here at our villa in Orient, today either. I hope it’s back tomorrow or we’re going to smell great on the plane ride home tomorrow.

When we arrived at Orient yesterday about 10;30 am, there was water in the parking area by Orange Fever. When we left at 3:30, it looked like they were finishing the repairs as they were dumping sand in the area.

Yeah - not finished - still no water this morning

Still no water - being told now that water from 5 to 7 and 8 to 10am only- other than that you are screwed - blame the govt - landlords are as helpless as we

I hope you get some water soon.. Best wishes.

Is this water situation just in Orient Village or the whole French side?

We have water in the Cul de Sac neighborhood.

We had water for an hour or so tonight - being told we will have it four a couple of hours tomorrow - at the most

No full service until Monday at the least

Telling everyone on flight from SXM to CLT on Tuesday in advance, I am sorry for how I will smell

Strongly suspect your water in cul du sac is temporary - what we’ve been told is that all water cut off to orient village, terres base and cul du sac except for two hours twice daily - which means no washing dishes or clothing or much of anything else

can't you time showers, washing, cleaning to coincide with the times water is available to you?

From Le Pelican

The Collectivity has decided to modify the system put in place by Saur: "rather than opting for continuous closures on private networks with major leaks, SAUR will allow access to drinking water during two strategic time slots on the sectors presenting obvious economic challenges: from 8:00 to 10:00 and from 17:00 to 19:00, from this evening, Saturday, February 29, 2020 ".

"This choice was made, after numerous consultations and discussions with socio-professionals, in order to penalize the economic fabric as little as possible but does not detract from our priority and our efforts to ensure an efficient service for the distribution of water to all the citizens of Saint-Martin, all sectors combined. insist that these measures are very temporary and will only be maintained until time returns to a normal situation with regard to the stocks built up in the tanks and which guarantee the continuity of public service.
If SAUR had planned to carry out continuous cuts for at least 48 hours, it is obvious and logical that these new easing measures will lengthen the time of the disruptions.

Everything is done to keep these deadlines as short as possible and we will keep you informed of developments. In the meantime, everyone is asked to control their water consumption and avoid the prohibitive uses of car washes, outdoor watering or filling swimming pools. ".

They just now discovered these leaks? Maybe it has something to do with the sewer work in Grand Case?

There is no water in Oyster Pond on the French side this morning.

Water main break, off until 2pm I think

No water on Friday - planned outage, apparently but no warning

Water on Saturday from 6 to 8 pm only - not enough pressure or enough time to do either dishes or laundry

Water on Sunday from 8 to 10am and 6 to 8 pm - got showers - flushed toilets, etc... still not able to do laundry or dishes

Today - no water - no water until at LEAST 2pm - (though I do not believe them at all at this point)

Cannot say enough nice things about Magali Bertho - she came to apartment and discussed with us in person on Saturday morning - and texted me again this morning - information helps, but it does not make it all better. If our apartment did not have access to a pool, we’d have no way to flush toilets - I will shower at beach bar this afternoon because I don’t expect water back on here...

I do NOT think the government has handled this well at all - apparently it was strategic outages to only certain part of French St. Martin - no one was warned - and surprise - putting pressure on and off into a leaky system breaks it... I am no engineer, but that should not surprise anyone.

Where on the French side is the leak. East or West? Is the road blocked somewhere?

Never experienced water issues on St. Martin in the past. What do the restaurants in this area do (Le Piment, L'Astrolabe)? How can they function without running water? This would make washing the lettuce kind of difficult, as well as employee hand washing. And, what happens to the hotels any in the area like Esmeralda and Palm Court? We'll be finding out soon.

Per the Daily Herald: Leakage is in some private water systems. Apparently Lowlands and Orient Bay have private water distribution lines. Leakage had become so bad that water plant could not maintain supply. Stoppages will continue until water storage tanks are full again. In the meantime water systems should repair leaks. If they know where they are.

That seems really esoteric, as to when the stoppages will cease? Almost seems like to me that consumers are getting caught in a p*ssing match between the Collectivite' and the private water companies?

As much as the water goes off on sxm I can’t imagine a nice villa without a cistern. We have stayed at a villa on baie rouge in the past and that villa had a large cistern as does some of the hotels we’ve stayed at.

It's not a pissing match. When the lowlands and OB were developed they put in their own distribution networks. They have apparently failed to maintain them. Not the water co;s fault.

Just got back to our apartment in Orient Village - no water

Water at Kon Tiki - JUST across the street from us - but no water in apartment

Frustrating as we have reservation for a last dinner on island

WAY out of date - problem WAY worse than Friday - we’ve not had dependable water - if any - since then

We have water in Oyster Pond on the French side.

Still nothing in orient village

From what I understand this is a pissing match between French govt and owners and we are caught in between - certainly leaving a very bad tast in our mouths

We're booked at Palm Court from this Wednesday thru Sunday. But, without water that would be unacceptable. Have to now seek out a place to stay on the more stable Dutch side on short notice.

I'm just reading between the lines about what the national water company is saying and not saying..

No water this morning when we woke up...on again now... unclear for how long

We go home this afternoon so I will not be able to provide further updates

There seems to be a water issue of some sort on and off on island. We stayed in the Kim Sha beach area late January into February.. On a weeks visit in that area, we were without water for several hours twice in 7 days. The owner, in Pelican area, said there have been water issues since Irma. ?? Never have we been without water on our previous visit post Irma, so not sure.I have read other peoples comments on facebook re times when they had no water as well. So,,,not sure.

There are many water issues, both sides of the island. And long before Irma. A friend who works for Dutch water company says as much as 35% leaks away.

Just went to wash my breakfast dishes, no water.

A google translation of an article discussing the water issue in FaxInfo.

https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&pto=nl&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=fr&sp=nmt4&tl=en&u=https://www.faxinfo.fr/%3Fp%3D43282&usg=ALkJrhivkC6tit7IPhMZuKhFUJ6SJbFZuw

A summary

Last weekend was marked by serious problems in the distribution of drinking water. The situation is simple: our production tool cannot currently cope with consumption and this consumption does not simply depend on what you use, a large part being attributable to leaks on the network, especially in the Orient Bay and des Terres-Basses ”, explains COM in a press release.

Arrived in Orient yesterday about 2:30 pm. Water on then and till bedtime, 10:30pm.
Water off during the night till 6-7ish this morning. Water still on now. Hope it stays that way!

I hope so too! Enjoy your stay!

And now the water is off. GRRR!!

Hope you got your shower in before it went off!!

I remember back in 1985 we booked a chalet at Club Orient and had water issues. We had stayed at CO in 1983 and 1984 and had no issues but this two week stay started on the second day without water. The maids were leaving two buckets on the porch and we were supposed to go to the beach and fill them for flushing the toilets. I said to the mamagement that this was not acceptable and we checked out. The issues at CO went on for a week or more. My point is if there is an issue as important as tap water and flushing the toilet check out and find a hotel that has the basic necessities .

The Prefecture has announced new hours for water distribution to Orient Bay, Anse Marcel, and Terre Basses:

Ainsi à partir de ce soir, mardi 3 mars, l'eau sera distribuée :
- le matin de 6h à 9h
- le soir de 17h à 20h

For those who have limited French, that’s
From Tuesday March 3
06:00 - 09:00 in the morning
17:00 - 20:00 in the evening

The limitations on water distribution will continue until the storage tanks are full.