The Tribune

By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

ST BARNABAS MP Shanendon Cartwright urged the government to immediately address electricity and water supply issues that are impacting Eleuthera residents daily.

Mr Cartwright, Free National Movement Deputy Leader, noted that some people on the island have gone without power for an entire day.

“I got a message this morning about no electricity in Whale Point for 20 hours. So, people of Eleuthera are really having a difficult time,’ he said in the House of Assembly on Monday.

Mr Cartwright said that a family, with a elderly woman about 80 years old and a four-month-old, are having difficulty due to disruption in water supply.   

He stressed that the government should take responsibility and stop blaming everybody.

“We have the people of Eleuthera who are having to deal with challenges of what some say is like the dark ages, and they feel it is not right and the government must find a way. That is their job, not to point fingers, but find a way to deal with those issues,” Mr Cartwright said.

He called on Minister for Energy JoBeth Coleby Davis needs to shed some light on why these issues are happening in Eleuthera.

“These are the things that fundamentally matter that the Bahamian people are talking about,” he said.

In Bimini, Mr Cartwright said residents there are concerned about the increase airport fees they deal with compared to the fees at the Lynden Pindling International Airport.

“They feel it is a disparity and the way government is making decision is lopsided,” he said.

Mr Cartwright said the government continues to paint a false picture of what life is really like for Bahamians in the Bahamas as he raised concerns over fiscal matters.

He said the Davis administration is a 'tax and spend' government.

He called for the expansion of financial facilities and the need to expand on historical partnerships with the Inter-American Development Bank and the Caribbean Development Bank.

Mr Cartwright said: “We have not suggested that it cannot be beneficial to the Bahamians people, we just ask what does the government have in mind? What was the impetus? What was the thinking by becoming part of this membership?"