Bethesda Dam (Antigua)

Bethesda Dam [reservoir]
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Location: not far from Willoughby Bay , Antigua , Antigua and Barbuda Larger places on the shore: Bethesda ( St. Paul )
Antigua and Barbuda
Coordinates	17 ° 2 ′ 38 "  N , 61 ° 45 ′ 19"  W Coordinates: 17 ° 2 ′ 38 "  N , 61 ° 45 ′ 19"  W
Data on the structure
Data on the reservoir
Reservoir length	approx. 500 m
Reservoir width	approx. 250 m
Storage space	660 000  m³
Catchment area	1-3 km²
Particularities:	Important Bird Area
agricultural water supply

The Bethesda Dam is a reservoir in St. Paul's Parish in the southeast of the Caribbean island of Antigua .

Location and landscape

The lake is located just west of Bethesda , not far from Willoughby Bay . The lake is about 500 meters long. The bush-covered foothills of Monks Hill rise to the south, and farmland extends to the northwest.

Function and history

With a storage capacity of around 660,000 m³, Bethesda is the second largest storage lake on the island and supplies the agricultural zone that extends inland from Bethesda.

The much larger Potworks Dam to the north serves the municipal water supply (drinking water), making Bethesda the largest agricultural reservoir. The island of Antigua suffers - in contrast to the other Caribbean islands - from drought, so that the reservoirs are of great importance. The Bethseda Reservoir contains almost 10% of the entire storage capacity of the island (about 7 million m³), ​​and almost half of the agricultural storage water (1.5 million m³).

The Bethesda Dam was built in the later 1970s. Today, around 30 hectares of cultivated land can be sprinkled with the water. In times of need, the water is also fed into the Delapps Water Treatment Plant in the Potworks Dam - for example during the great drought in 1984, when it had largely dried up. Bethesda was also exhausted by the end of summer.

natural reserve

The lake has also become interesting for conservation, meanwhile, can be found among other populations of the West Indian Whistling Duck (West Indian Whistling-duck, Dendrocygna arborea ) and the Karibenblässhuhn (Caribbean Coot, Fulica caribaea ), two endangered species of birds, so was Lakeside 2007 by BirdLife Internationally an Important Bird Area  (AG012 Bethesda Dam ) with 1 hectare described according to the criteria A1 (endangered species), A2 (local / endemic species), A4i (at least 1% of the population). A national protection status is still pending.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Genivar Trinidad & Tobago; Ivor Jackson and Associates, Kingdome Consultants Inc. (Assoc.): Sustainable Island Resource Management Zoning Plan for Antigua and Barbuda (including Redonda) . Port of Spain December 2011, Chapter 4.8.2 Water and Wastewater Infrastructure , p. 93 ff . ( ab.gov.ag [PDF; accessed on February 22, 2014] there p. 111 ff; especially Figure 4.20 Wells, reservoirs & desalination plants , and Table 3.2 Existing Storage Volumes of Major Watersheds in Antigua , p. 29 / pdf P. 47; area information there is the water system). ab.gov.ag ( Memento of the original from October 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ ^{a b c} The Technical Advisory Committee - UNCCD (ed.): United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification: National Action Plan for Antigua & Barbuda . (Draft), i. A. The Environment Division - Ministry of Public Works and Environment. April 2005, 1.1.4.2. Water Resources , Table 1.1. Agriculture Reservoir Location and Capacity in Antigua , S. 11 ( unccd.int [PDF; accessed on March 1, 2014] there p. 18; volumes in m³ are converted to 1000 acre-feet , i.e. approx. ¹ ⁄ _1/4 too low). unccd.int ( Memento of the original from June 5, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ^ ^{A b c} The Caribbean Conservation Association (Ed.): Antigua and Barbuda - Country environmental profile . i. A. The Government of Antigua and Barbuda - Historical, Conservation, and Environmental Commission. St. Michael (Barbados) 1991, Section Water supply / demand and treatment , Figure 2.2 (5) Several of the larger agricultural and municipal reservoirs for the Island of Antigua. Table 2.2 (3). Size and storage capacity of several of the larger agricultural and municipal reservoirs In Antigua. and Section Watersheds , Table 2.2 (2) Antigua watsrsheds with storage capacity estimates for existing and proposed agricultural and municipal water supplies (acre-feet). , S. 65 ff. resp. 61 ( usaid.gov [PDF] there p. 85 ff or 82; area in Table 2.2 (3) is the catchment area (groundwater reservoir)).
4. ↑ Due to the lack of central volcanic mountains, both of the old islands, which are geologically relative to the Antilles, have no orographic cloud and little accumulation of precipitation . Jeff Baldwin: The contested beach. Resistance and Resort development in Antigua, West Indies . Chapter 14. In: Carolyn L. Cartier, Alan A. Lew (Eds.): Seductions of Place: Geographical Perspectives on Globalization and Touristed Landscapes . tape 19 from Critical Geographies . Psychology Press, 2005, ISBN 0-415-19219-6 , Part III The Beach , section Desiring the Caribbean , p. 203–221 , there p. 222 ( limited preview in Google book search).
5. ^ Department of Regional Development and Environment, Executive Secretariat for Economic and Social Affairs, Organization of American States (ed.): Natural Resources Assessment, Application, and Projects for the Agricultural Sector of Antigua and Barbuda: Maps . 1992, ISBN 0-8270-3072-X , pp. 42 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
6. ^ UNCCD: National Action Plan . 2005, 2.1.4.3. Water production: Bethesda Catchment, Potworks Catchment , S. 34 ( unccd.int [PDF]).
7. ^ Antigua Public Utilities Authority: Antigua Drought 1983, Implications and Possible Solutions. Government of Antigua and Barbuda, Saint John's (Antigua) 1984.
8. ↑ AG012 Bethesda Dam. Site profile. In: birdlife.org> Sites - Important Bird Areas (IBAs). BirdLife International, accessed February 28, 2014 . 
9. ^ Global IBA Criteria. In: birdlife.org> Sites - Important Bird Areas (IBAs) . Accessed February 2014 .