Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office with Responsibility for Economic Affairs and Planning Marsha Caddle, said if the Suarez Circus had stayed in The Belle, St Michael, it could have resulted in a national disaster.

In a media briefing in her office in Warrens, St Michael, Caddle, who chairs the committee tasked with resolving the situation, said the circus was close to the Belle Pumping Station and the risk of contamination was too great to ignore.

“The site of the circus was not only in Zone A, but it was also extremely close to the Belle Pumping Station. I am advised that it’s about 568 metres away from the Belle Pumping Station. That is very close from a water protection standpoint. The Belle Pumping Station supplies 25 per cent of the country’s drinking water. The fact that the former location of the circus was so close to the Bell Pumping Station, the fact that Zone A means that if there’s any bacteria, any contaminants, anything that gets into the water supply through the groundwater, that there’s a less than 90-day transmission period,” she said.