Bermuda Waterworks Limited (BWL) has applied for planning permission to build one new reservoir for potable water and extensively upgrade another.

The new reservoir will be built on BWL owned land near their offices at Parsons Lane in Devonshire while the Middle Road, Paget reservoir which is 70 years old ? requires an upgrade.

BWL chief officer Allan Rance said: ?The company started business in 1932 which means that the reservoir is 70-years-old.?

?They have aged and those reservoirs need to be replaced and they are now undersized for the daily demand of water.?

He said the old infrastructure would be replaced with a stronger infrastructure in the hope that the facilities will last another 70 years.

If permission is granted, BWL will begin building a 750,000 gallon reservoir at the Parsons Lane facility. It is hoped that the Middle Road facility will be changed from a 500,000 gallon reservoir to one that can hold three million gallons.

?We have to have a substitute reservoir before going to work on the present reservoir. Only after the substitute is completely done can we turn our attention to the second one,? Mr. Rance said.

The new models will be more efficient, he said, and will be built as ?pre-stressed, reinforced concrete tanks?.

The shape will be cylindrical unlike the present reservoir that is rectangular in shape. The tanks will be above ground and Mr. Rance said he believed the tanks would be ?more pleasing to the eye?.

?The timeline we are hoping for is to begin building the first reservoir later this year or early next year and then the other facility won?t start until a year after that.?