A desalination plant used to convert seawater into drinking water was knocked offline after the island it is located on was hit by Hurricane Irma. It appears that a cut in its electrical power supply was the main reason (ARIA 50350). The plant requires 240 kVA of power to operate. It has a 10,000 m³ storage tank of potable water, but the hurricane damaged the tank’s cover. As the water in the tank was exposed to the elements, the operator tested it and then retreated it to render it potable. Potable water was carried to the island by two naval vessels. The plant’s operator had three 60 kVA generator sets flown in. These were supplemented by three 22 kVA generator sets commandeered by and transported from another island by the authorities. The operator then checked the condition of the seawater intake with the intention of restarting a section of the plant that produces 1000 m³ of potable water per day. The operator also owns a mobile desalination unit but it was on another continent 6120 km away. The authorities made the necessary arrangements to have it flown in. Five weeks later, the desalination unit put in service and began providing an additional capacity of 4000 m³ per day.

Compounding these issues was the fact that the operator was unable to distribute water to homes via its pipeline network because they had been destroyed. It came up with an alternative method of distributing water to the population.