The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

An ex-Bahamas Out Island Promotion Board president yesterday made an impassioned plea to address Mangrove Cay’s “deplorable” utility crisis which forced her to relocate to Nassau to handle bookings for the upcoming fishing season.

Cheryl Bastian, owner/operator of Andros-based Swain’s Cay Lodge, told Tribune Business she was “extremely concerned” for her property’s visitor bookings with the fishing season due to start next month and all of Bahamas Power & Light (BPL), the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) and Water & Sewerage Corporation unable to maintain reliant, consistent utility supply.

Disclosing that service had become appreciably worse in the last four months, she said the difficulties had peaked within the last month with BPL’s supply often cut-off between three to five times per day - and for up to four to five hours at a time.

Voicing fears that guests will simply “check-out” early, because they will be unable to handle the heat without air conditioning, Ms Bastian disclosed to this newspaper that she relocated to the capital last month for two weeks to ensure she would be able to receive and deal with bookings. Besides being confronted with power outages, she added that BTC’s landline and Internet service were also frequently down, often for hours at a time.

Recalling how she had been unable to attend a Promotion Board meeting on Zoom on Monday afternoon due to the loss of BTC connectivity, the Swain’s Cay chief said the Water & Sewerage Corporation’s water supply is frequently cut-off and interrupted when BPL goes out because its wellfield pumps rely on the state-owned utility and have no back-up generators.

While other Mangrove Cay residents have told this newspaper that the water supply issues are due to leaking and damaged pipes, Ms Bastian, who said she took on her “fully Bahamian-owned” lodge because “Bahamians need to win”, argued that current service quality woes left her with no choice but to “name and shame”.

“We’ve always been having electricity problems, water problems, Internet problems,” she conceded, “but for almost a month now we’re down to three hours. Our guests will check-out because the light is off for three hours, on for three hours, going back and forth.

“Its absolutely deplorable. People don’t speak out here, but I want to speak out. We need to shame and blame. It’s horrible. You wake up this morning and BTC was out again. They were out yesterday about half the day. OK? Light is going out, light is going on. The water company, you get generators so that when the lights go out it doesn’t affect the water; giving simple water to the community.

“We cannot do wells around here. It’s all brackish, and most people can’t afford to do it. It’s just lousy. We have our MP, Leon Lundy. Right? People have got to jet set around and do things for The Bahamas, but they have to make sure their happy. I mean, all these things happening. It’s terrible. There’s no reason why BPL should be going off every three hours. They need to send a technician to fix this by now. My goodness, it’s almost been a month.”

Ms Bastian added: “Please, we need some kind of help. We need some kind of shame before somebody freaks. It’s just horrible, the deplorable situation with electricity with BPL, water with the Water & Sewerage Corporation. With BTC, there’s nobody even in their office.

“They have a technician come down once a week from south Andros. They have no one in their office. They don’t even answer the phone. Their phones aren’t working. They are useless, they are useless.” Ms Bastian subsequently confirmed her experiences in an interview with Tribune Business, describing the quality and consistency of service from all three utilities as “the worst ever” and “unimaginable”.

“I think I’m in a nightmare,” she added. “People can’t sleep at night with the power off. My assistant, the day before yesterday, said she cannot come into work because she is so worn out. It is going off, for the last week, at least every three, four, five hours, and for the last two days every three hours. Over the last month it’s been going off consistently for four to five times a day.

“The landline and Internet are off consistently. Consistently. I’ve been back a week and a few days. Prior to that, the landline and Internet were off for two weeks straight. I said to my assistant that I would be better off answering e-mails for the lodge in Nassau. I stayed in Nassau for an extra two weeks in August.”

While BTC service had improved following her return, Ms Bastian said both the Internet and landline remain “in and out”, culminating in her missing Promotion Board meetings on Monday afternoon. She voiced fears for the impact the utility woes will have for visitor bookings with the upcoming fishing season’s start just weeks away in October.

“We’re moving hopefully into the fishing season that commences in the first part of October,” she told Tribune Business. “This is the booking window when guests call to book for the season. It impacts business when you’re trying to do reservations. You need electricity.

“My season opens on October 1. I’m going to look for solar panels, but they won’t be installed in time and not everyone can afford them. I’m very concerned; extremely concerned. I’m privileged to have a full house coming on I think October 15-17, but I don’t know what the answer is right now. How can they deal with this?

“I have my first set of people coming on October 6. There’s six of them. They seem a bit finicky. I don’t know how to deal with that. What do I say to them?” Ms Bastian’s complaints were also backed by fellow Mangrove Cay resident, Norman Trabulsky Jr, in a voice note sent to Tribune Business.

BPL, in a statement, revealed they have been experiencing generation challenges in the Mangrove Cay and south Andros area that has caused load shedding in three-hour intervals. “Recently, we experienced generation challenges that resulted in several days of load shedding between Saturday, September 9, and early Wednesday morning (September 13, 2023),” it conceded.

“With two units out of service, we are unable to meet the usual demand for the area and customers experienced outages in three-hour intervals. BPL said service in Mangrove Cay and South Andros was restored on Wednesday, and that its area team is working to improve generation capacity.

It added: “On Wednesday, the team was successful in completing repairs to one of the two units. At this point, there is sufficient generation that all customers in Mangrove Cay and South Andros have full service from BPL. Nonetheless, we understand the importance of ensuring that sufficient back-up exists so that customers are not impacted if there is a challenge with one of the available units or allowing for necessary maintenance.

“Our team is presently working to get the second unit that is out of service operational to improve our generating capabilities in Mangrove Cay and South Andros. We apologise to our customers who experienced bouts of supply interruption during those days and assure them that we continue to work to ensure consistent service to their communities.”

BTC, meanwhile, advised that it is upgrading equipment in Little Creek and Driggs Hill and this could impact fixed-line and data services. BTC added that it is undertaking a migration exercise in Andros that should be completed before the end of the month.

Gregory Stubbs, the Water & Sewerage Corporation’s acting general manager for the Family islands, acknowledged that power outages may be impacting water supplies in Mangrove Cay. “South Andros and Mangrove Cay have two different systems. We do not have any issues in Mangrove Cay itself; our system is up and running without any issues in the Mangrove Cay area,” he said.

“I’m not saying we have zero issues in Mangrove Cay, but our main issues are in South Andros. There have been some electrical issues in Mangrove Cay that could have affected our service… So while there may have been some minor issues there are no major issues in Mangrove Cay.”