The Island could face a water shortage crisis unless people stop being so wasteful a Government Minister has warned.

And Works and Engineering Minister Alex Scott said that plans were in the pipeline to install a reverse osmosis plant in case the Island had to rely on the sea for its water supply.

"I wish to pause here to make a pitch to the people of Bermuda,'' Mr. Scott said to fellow MPs during yesterday's Works and Engineering budget debate in the House of Assembly.

"We must consider returning to the days of old when we used to conserve our water rather than using it creatively -- nowadays we turn the tap as if it came from a large reservoir.

"We must use our water carefully rather wastefully. Mr. Scott recounted a story of how, when at college in the US, people would stare at him when he washed his hands because they thought it so unusual that he should turn the tap on briefly, then off again while he soaped his hands and then back on again to rinse them.

"They would normally just let the tap run but it was ingrained in me -- it was cultural.'' Mr. Scott pointed out that the amount of rainfall varied throughout last year and yet there were certain facilities that relied on water.

"The King Edward VII Memorial Hospital is one of our biggest clients,'' Mr.

Scott said.

"That is a client that we must serve and so we are putting in a request for a RO plant. Bermuda has reached the point where we have to look to the sea for our future source of water.

"While we shore up our resources we are also calling on the rest of Bermuda to begin to use water more discreetly.

"And we must impress on those contract workers in Bermuda -- they may come from a culture where water is plentiful but that's not the case in Bermuda.

Mr. Scott's predecessor and current Shadow Minister C.V. (Jim) Woolridge questioned the extent of the problem.

"BLDC land has some of the best reservoirs on the Island,'' he said.

"I think that, with the capacity they have, I hope that, before we push the panic button, we would explore that area.'' But Mr. Scott replied: "BLDC only has one or two weeks capacity and the problem would still be with us,'' he said.

GOVERNMENT GVT