The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE Tribune Business Reporter nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net THE Water and Sewerage Corporation (WSC) plans to spend about $10 million on four waste water treatment plants as well as several disposal wells in New Providence, the corporation's general manager Glen Laville told Tribune Business yesterday. Last November, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) approved an $81 million loan for a project aimed at rehabilitating the Water and Sewerage Corporation's (WSC) water supply and wastewater treatment provision. Mr Laville said: "The waste water plants that we are targeting under the IDB loan is the one at Malcolm Park, the septic and sludge facility at Harold Pond, Fox Hill and Flamingo Gardens. "On the treatment plants and also some disposal wells we will spend about $10 million, a million or two of that to be spent on disposal wells." Mr Laville said all of the bids were in for the contract to build, own and operate a $4-$6 million wastewater treatment plant in Pinewood Gardens. That project, he noted does not fall under the $81 million IDB loan. Mr Laville said: "We got all the bids in we have done our evaluation but we still need to get our final approval for awards." A September 2011 Environmental and Social Analysis, prepared by Bahamian environmental consultant Stacey Moultrie for the IDB project, revealed the well at Pinewood Gardens - constructed to 300 feet deep - repeatedly fails as a result of "more than 30 years of untreated sewage" going into it. "Consequently, as much as 250,000 gallons per day of raw sewage can end up on the ground whenever failures occur," the study said.