By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS
lmunnings@tribunemedia.net
SOUTH Eleuthera residents are frustrated with failure of the power supply that has left them without power since early Tuesday morning.
In a press statement released on Tuesday, Bahamas Power and Light advised South Eleuthera residents that the company was actively working to address the power supply failure that had affected communities between Tarpum Bay and Bannerman Town.
BPL said a team from New Providence had flown in to work alongside BPL’s Eleuthera operation team to rectify the matter.
According to the statement, the power outage occurred shortly after noon on Tuesday, however, residents insisted that the power outages were over a period of two days.
A 50-year-old resident of Tarpum Bay said that the power outages are recurring, however, she described the most recent episode as the “longest one yet”.
The woman said that despite the power outages, the water remained on unlike previous instances.
“You know we just have to put up with it. We have to deal with it,” she said.
She added: “You know we just got to have patience. I used to get upset, but we just have to have patience to deal with it until it gets better.”
Another resident of Tarpum Bay, who also requested to be anonymous, said the power outages have affected his daily routine.
He said: “I have an electric stove and I have an electric water heater. I am unable to bathe and shave like you would like to, you know.”
He urged the government to use solar energy, adding that it is frustrating that electricity matters are not being addressed properly by successive administrations.
He criticised government for failing to focus on the important matters.
One resident wrote to BPL about the situation.
“The recent power outage in South Eleuthera is completely unacceptable,” the letter, which was also sent to the media, said.
The resident said the power went off around 3am Tuesday in South Eleuthera and came on around 11.30am only to go off again around 2.30pm and finally came back on around 9am yesterday.
“In the modern world, power is a necessity, not a convenience,” the resident wrote. “We have been having issues for quite some time with overload conditions in South Eleuthera where load shedding has to be done. Now, on two of the coldest days in recent memory we have no power whatsoever - so we know it was not an overload issue due to air conditioning.
“It is time for BPL to be proactive in ensuring Eleuthera has reliable power and backup power for situations when the primary source is unusable. To say proactive is almost a joke in that it is really reactive due to the situations we’ve been having here.”
Additionally, scores of residents also took to social media to complain.
One Facebook user said: “This island has been neglected for far too long and from I was a child and had sense there has been power issues and load shedding. I could count on it every summer like clockwork.”
“So, BPL admits that this is all on them. Will they compensate for ruined appliances?” another user asked.
Central and South Eleuthera MP Clay Sweeting confirmed that the power was restored as of yesterday morning.
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