The Tribune

The Water and Sewerage Corporation (WSC) has joined the world in observing World Water Day, which will be celebrated on March 22.

Throughout 2014, the United Nations will be working closely with its member states and other stakeholders to focus on the ‘bottom billion’ who live in slums and impoverished rural areas without access to safe drinking water, adequate sanitation, sufficient food and energy services.

World Water Day hopes to raise awareness of the links between water and energy, and demonstrate that by offering solutions to water energy issues, humans can achieve greater economic and social impacts.

Glen Laville, Water and Sewerage Corporation’s (WSC) general manager, said that under the non-revenue water (NRW) programme recently initiated, it will be saving 10 billion gallons of water over the next 10 years.

Mr Laville added, which will go a long way in reducing energy consumption. “By saving 10 billion gallons of water, we could reduce our energy consumption by seven million gallons of diesel and about 33 gigawatt-hours of electricity, which could power some 700 homes and 800 vehicles for the next 10 years,” he said.

Dr Richard Cant, a Water and Sewerage Corporation (WSC) consultant, said many parts of the world use dams, currents and tidal power to harness the power of water.

He added that in the future, the Water and Sewerage Corporation would like to see this approach developed in the Bahamas by using technologies such as tidal power and Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC).

“Additionally, the Bahamas also has the option of using wind power to operate its desalination plants, and this is what will be done in the future. For example, the new desalination plant in South Eleuthera is developing this capability,” said Mr Cant.