The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

The Water and Sewerage Corporation (WSC) has yet to accept the $320,000 raised by Treasure Cay residents to rebuild the area’s sewerage system lift station that was destroyed by Dorian.

Bill McLean, president of the Beach Villas Owners Association at Treasure Cay, told Tribune Business that out of 119 homes in his association only 35 are currently inhabitable. A major factor behind this is that Treasure Cay’s sewerage system was left in disrepair by the Category Five storm, while COVID-19 concerns have also delayed rebuilding.

Mr McLean said: “It’s been difficult. Think of this. Hurricane Dorian occurred in September, 2019. It took the better part of nine months or more for us to begin to get electricity back. The water storage tank, which had been leaking for years, has only recently been replaced. It was totally wiped out.

“So we limped along with poor quality water, and almost no water pressure, until really just within the last two months. Then there is the whole business of the sewage that we are still having to have a septic hauling truck come and pump out the lift station for every one of our condominium associations.”

There are 340 total units on Treasure Cay where homeowners are just flushing into pits, which then need to be pumped out and the human waste taken away. They have been pumping their own sewage waste since Hurricane Dorian left in 2019, and these pits often overflow.

Mr McLean said that, as a result, he and other residents feel “abandoned” by the Government due the frustration of having to manually pump their waste on a daily basis.

He added: “These are essential basic essential services that the Government has the responsibility to provide and they haven’t been doing it.’”

Incensed at the lack of attention received from the authorities over the past two years, Mr McLean said: “I’ve read the charter of the Water & Sewerage Corporation, what they’re responsible for doing under the auspices of the Government. Their charter didn’t change because we had a hurricane, and their charter didn’t change because it was a change in government.”

“So when we hear about Water & Sewerage Corporation’s major problems and all of that, and then a change of government as well, I don’t care about the change in government. The charter of your organisation has not changed. It’s your responsibility to get this back and running.”

Mr McLean said the situation is both deterring potential tenants from renting units, and owners from rebuilding what they own, due to raw sewage often overflowing in their backyard.

Unit owners have pooled their finances and sent documents to the Water & Sewerage Corporation offering to pay for the equipment needed to rebuild the pumping station and sewage network for the island. “The homeowner associations have offered to pay for 100 percent of the cost of the lift station equipment, which is at about $320,000 plus shipping,” Mr McLean said.

“We have collected that money. I’ve been sitting on what I’ve collected from the owners of the Beach Villas for over a year, and my owners are beginning to wonder: ‘Wait a minute, you took this money from us then why can’t we get Water & Sewerage Corporation to accept these funds and get the equipment purchases and get the lift stations fixed?”