The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A senior Water & Sewerage Corporation executive yesterday told south Eleuthera residents that “we feel your pain” over supply disruptions that have been blamed on electricity “irregularities”.

Cyprian Gibson, the state-owned utility’s deputy general manager for New Providence operations, subsequently told Tribune Business that the Corporation will today ship a “new back-up generator” to replace the existing one that burnt out due to overuse at the reverse osmosis plant that serves communities such as Rock Sound and Tarpum Bay.

With no electrical supply to drive water production and pump supply around the Corporation’s distribution network to customers, residents and businesses in south Eleuthera endured a second consecutive day of little to no water which forced some of the latter to close.

Noah’s Ark Animal Clinic, in a posting to pet owners yesterday, warned: “This notice is to regrettably inform you that routine veterinary services on Wednesday, August 28, 2024, are temporarily suspended due to a disruption in the water clinic’s supply in Rock Sound. As a result, all surgical and medical appointments are cancelled effective immediately until further notice.

“The office will remain open until 1pm to reschedule appointments, refill prescriptions, general inquiries and emergency services. Clients that have appointments scheduled for Thursday, August 29, 2024, will be contacted should the suspension be extended. We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused.”

With BPL again warning of a four-hour power interruption in the Tarpum Bay area that was due to begin from 9am yesterday, Mr Gibson told south Eleuthera residents via social media postings seen by Tribune Business that the Water & Sewerage Corporation was tackling the loss of water supply “as a matter of priority”.

In response to his pledge that a new back-up generator would be shipped to south Eleuthera today, Kendera Bethell replied: “Mr Gibson, looks like you all need to approach BPL as a matter of priority as well because they ain’t helping.” She added that the island’s utility woes “require prayer and fasting”, saying: “And school is about to open. Businesses closing. How we are supposed to function?”

Another resident, taking a more confrontational stance, wrote: “But Mr Gibson, you don’t feel our pain, sir. Why doesn’t Water & Sewerage have a maintenance contingency plan? Why does the whole reverse osmosis have to crash and show that our greatest need for survival [water] has no back-up plan? Why do we have to wait 72 hours for repairs?

“So, Mr Gibson, we don’t want to give you grief... we want you to feel our grief, and 72 hours later ain’t helping us sir. Put that generator on an aircraft and land it at Rock Sound airport. Thank you for hearing us out, Mr Gibson.”

The Water & Sewerage Corporation executive, in response, said: “We do feel your pain, and we do apologise for the inconvenience. We are also hoping that BPL regularises our power supply today. They have also sent in specialists to address the main power supply. The generator is too large to fit on an aircraft. It must be shipped by boat.”

Speaking subsequently to Tribune Business, Mr Gibson said the Corporation was working with BPL to restore regular electricity supply to the south Eleuthera reverse osmosis plant as well as install the new back-up generator. The plant is also operated by Aqua Design, the same company that runs the water supply facility at the former Naval Base which was responsible for central Eleuthera’s recent outages.

“We’re approaching it from two angles,” Mr Gibson told this newspaper. “We are working with BPL to address the permanent power supply. We are also shipping tomorrow [today] a new back-up generator. We know they’ve [BPL] made statements they are improving their aged infrastructure. We are working along with them to address that issue that is affecting just the Rock Sound and Tarpum Bay area.”

Asserting that progress was being made, although there was no suggestion that south Eleuthera’s water supply was fully restored as Tribune Business went to press, Mr Gibson nevertheless voiced confidence that a solution will be found. “We are both giving it our greatest attention,” he added. “We are making steady progress. We feel confident.”

The Corporation, in a statement issued on Tuesday night, blamed the south Eleuthera water woes on BPL’s issues. “We understand the frustration and inconvenience of the residents of Tarpum Bay and Rock Sound caused by the extended water outage today,” it said.

“The situation is due to ongoing electricity grid supply irregularities which we are actively working to address in collaboration with BPL. Teams from both Water & Sewerage and BPL are currently on-site... To ensure continuous water supply, another generator has been purchased to replace the failed plant generator which was damaged due to extended usage.”

The Water & Sewerage Corporation previously described Eleuthera as “perhaps our most active island” with $27m total projects either underway, about to start or planned. These were billed as bringing “improvements to our water supply system across the island to meet the challenges we have experienced over the last several months”.

“Presently, the Corporation has over $7m of works in progress and a further over $20m in works is projected to commence shortly as part of the Eleuthera public-private partnership (PPP) road paving and public infrastructure programme,” Robert Deal, its general manager, told Tribune Business last month in referring to Bahamas Striping’s road upgrade project.

The works already underway include1.5m imperial gallons of new potable water storage at the Bogue water supply facility compared to the 250,000 imperial gallons previously in place. A further 1.5m imperial gallon storage tank is also being installed at the Naval Base facility to replace the previous “old leaking tank” with 200,000-gallon capacity.

A pumping station with high efficiency pumps and full stand-by generator capacity is also being developed at the Naval Base site, while 500,000 imperial gallons of potable water storage is being installed on Harbour Island to replace another 200,000 gallon tank that was also beset with leaks.

Mr Deal said “substantial repairs” to the Spanish Wells storage tank have been completed, and new high efficiency pumps are being procured for the island. Improvements will also be effected to the Bogue wellfield “to increase the quality and quantity of our groundwater production, which augments our Bogue desalination plant”.

Generators have already been installed at the Cistern pumping station, he added, with work planned for the Hatchet Bay booster station “in the coming weeks”. Mr Deal said the Waterford water supply facility is now in place, with the Spanish Wells pumping station also set for upgrades and improvements to the Current Island stand-by generator now in progress.

“The $20m-plus of water infrastructure works as part of the PPP project will include extensive improvements to the existing water transmission and distribution network to upgrade our systems, replacing old, high leak frequency mains and connecting our various systems to provide increased system redundancy and resiliency,” Mr Deal added of Eleuthera.

Mr Gibson yesterday pledged that, when completed, the upgrades will allow Eleuthera residents to enjoy a steady, consistent water supply once again. “We will return to our regular, reliable service that we provide throughout the Commonwealth of The Bahamas,” he promised. “We appreciate the patience of our customers while we improve the service.” 

Other south Eleuthera described the ongoing utility woes as a “sad state of affairs”. Speaking to Tribune Business, one resident said “temporary relief” has been provided by the tankered water distributed in her settlement over the past few days but complained it is only enough to maintain a household.

She explained that the amount of water distributed is “only enough to flush the toilet and wash the dishes”, so her family has been forced to purchase gallons of drinking water to perform basic tasks.

“We’ve been dealing with this problem for months,” she said. “Every time the current cut off, the water off, but for the past couple days it’s just been off all weekend; no water.

“They bring round the truck with the water over the last couple of days so I guess that’s temporary relief, but I’m telling you it’s a sad state of affairs. And then when the water do come round it isn’t enough, so as soon as you flush the toilet and wash the dishes, water gone.”

She said residents want to know when their water woes will come to an end and questioned what the utility companies and local government plan to do when schools reopen.

“Right now, I don’t even know what’s going to happen next week because the kids can’t go to school if there’s no light or water. And if you keep them home there isn’t any there either,” she added.

“We need to know a definitive plan for what is going to happen and when this will be fixed. We deserve to know that. Right now, the place like it’s falling apart. Nothing can stay on and like nothing getting fixed.”

Earlier this month, Toni Seymour, Bahamas Power & Light’s (BPL) chief operating officer, said Eleuthera residents will experience relief from debilitating power outages by the end of September. Locals, however, voiced doubts that the utility will meet this deadline, stating: “They will 100 percent have to prove me wrong because I seriously doubt it.”