The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

AS Bahamas Electricity Corporation workers fought to restore power to New Providence over the weekend, residents and business owners expressed frustration with the government’s persistent failure to address the problems ensnaring the utility provider.

An island-wide blackout, which began around 2pm on Friday, severely affected Atlantis, The Tribune understands. While The Cove, The Reef and the Coral Towers section of the resort were not affected by the outage, Royal Towers and Beach Towers were cut off after two of the property’s generators ran out of fuel.

Several restaurants within the resort were also forced to close down, guests had to be moved to the Convention Centre and the casino came to a temporary halt.

A press statement released by a spokesperson of the hotel noted that emergency generator power was re-established early on Saturday morning.

Those at the One & Only Ocean Club on Paradise Island had no electricity supply until it was fully restored around 3pm yesterday. On Saturday night, most of the Cable Beach strip was without power. The British Colonial Hilton also suffered a cut in supply.

Yesterday, Minister of Tourism Obie Wilchcombe could not say how the blackout affected the industry.

“I’m waiting on the full report on that,” he said. “We understand there was a case where one or two generators fell at some of the major hotels and obviously caused some disruption in service, but I think people for the most part were understandable that it was something you could not predict. But at the same time we want to ensure that whatever we have to do moving forward we can deliver that quality.”

Prominent businessman, Dionisio D’Aguilar, owner of the Superwash chain of laundromats, criticised Prime Minister Perry Christie for “dithering” in his attempt to reform the cash-strapped utility provider.

Mr D’Aguilar said he is baffled that the government would concentrate on the Bahamas Agriculture and Marine Science Institute (BAMSI) in North Andros; introducing national health care and hiring new immigration officers to “give school permits to children” when the island’s power generation system is so unreliable.

“This is bad for commerce,” he said. “The fact that you don’t have power significantly affects your ability to do business. The only way Superwash could operate in the Bahamas is if I go out and buy 10 generators.

“BEC is in crisis and the politicians don’t get that. If you don’t deal with this problem this will have a significant affect on your economy. BEC is bankrupt and has a plant incapable of meeting its current demands. Perry Christie is dithering over what to do with the company and we’re in this nightmare situation where no one wants to invest in the company because nobody knows who will own it and who will be operating it at the end of the day.”

The Tribune understands the blackout also affected operations at Super Value as the power cut disabled some stores’ ability to process credit card payments.

Over the weekend, residents took to social media and The Tribune’s website to blast the government for BEC’s problems.

One resident said: “This is just the preview for the summer when they will load-shed straight through. Baha Mar (is) coming and these (people) are as always behind the eight ball. Too busy making sure they boys straight and covering they (expletive) to even think about good governance.”

Another resident said: “Truly this really isn’t funny. Our power was off for 11 hours. God helps us – we sure can’t help ourselves for some reason.”

Another resident said his parents suffered without power for “thirty-one hours.”

Yesterday, BEC officials said full power was expected to be restored yesterday afternoon but there were reports last night of further outages in the east of New Providence off Eastern Road.