Four reverse osmosis plants are in the pipeline as Bermuda gets to grips with its water crisis.

Government may also repair the deteriorated catchment facilities at Tudor Hill and Morgan?s Point in Southampton.

Minister of Works and Engineering, Ashfield De Vent said that while these studies were being conducted, a contract had already been awarded for repairs to tanks at Prospect and the Quarry.

These two tanks will give the Island an additional capacity of over one million gallons of water by the end of October.

According to Mr. DeVent Government?s average capacity of producing consumable water is approximately one million gallons daily. Mr. De Vent said it was not true that the Tudor Hill and Morgan?s Point water catches were not being used.

He said water from these two catchments was used in the nearby reverse osmosis facility.

?Some of those things have not been maintained for 20 years, but I?ve got my people to have a look if they can be used sometime in the future and if it is viable to get them back in shape,? he said.

He said with the new mindset towards processed (treated) water, a containerised 130,000 gallon per day reverse osmosis seawater treatment plant will be delivered to Bermuda. He said this ?portable unit? would be located at the former ZFB site on North Shore and would be dedicated to providing water for an adjacent new water truckers? outlet.

?People think you buy this machine and stick it in the water. But you have to power it and once it produces water you have to find somewhere to store that water, or truck it away because once it starts producing, it produces hundreds of gallons of water a day,? he said. Mr. De Vent said water from this North Shore plant would be stored in an nearby area and another water truck area would be constructed from where trucks could collect water as needed.

?These are logistics that we have been working out over the last few weeks.?

?The Ministry is committed to getting this facility up and running in the shortest possible time,? he said, apologising to members of the public who have used the site in the past for camping.

?We would ask for the co-operation of the public while the area is prepared,? he said.

A second seawater reverse osmosis plant has been tentatively secured in case the weather does not change.

This plant, he said, would be able to produce another 130,000 gallons a day.

Government had already budgeted in 2006 for an additional reverse osmosis plant which would have gone into operation in 2007.

With the schedule simply ?moved forward? this plant would be delivered to the Island ahead of schedule and would supply 500,000 gallons of water a day.

?Wedco has also arranged to install a 15,000 gallon per day reverse osmosis plant at Boaz Island Village. This will ease the load on Government facilities in the West End,? he said.

In the meantime, a shipment of 2.5 million gallons of drinking water arrived in Bermuda yesterday.

This water will be pumped to storage tanks in Dockyard and from there to a temporary truck loading station adjacent to the Sail Loft tank. Mr. De Vent said 1.5 million gallons of this water would be trucked from Dockyard and distributed to clients in need by local water truck representatives.

?During the pumping operations to unload the water from the ship, truckers facilities at Port Royal will be shut down for overdue maintenance as they have operated the equipment flat out for the past several weeks,? he said.

This, he said, may also be a requirement for the Prospect facility.

The remaining one million gallons of water will be used for Wedco properties.

Mr. De Vent gave the public his assurance that the water being shipped in not only passed ETA standards, but would also be tested by the Health Department before being pumped off the ship.

A further 2.5 million gallons is set to arrive in Bermuda by ship early next month.