The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL 

Tribune Business Editor 

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

AN Eleuthera resident yesterday said she was forced to flee her home and island, and travel to Nassau to celebrate Independence, because she “can’t take any more” of the island’s electricity woes.

Mildred Young, a retired civil servant and teacher, told Tribune Business that she has already told relatives with young children not to visit her this summer because Eleuthera’s frequent and long-lasting power outages “don’t combine well with mosquitos”.

“I can’t take it. That’s why I am in Nassau,” the 69 year-old, a member of the Wemyss Bight Restoration Group, explained. “Presently I am in New Providence because I cannot take what is going on in my village. Power, water, cable, Internet, etc caused me not to come home for Independence. “I called my cousins them, and I said I can’t come up. I cannot take it. I’m a senior citizen, 70 years-old, trying to live in comfort. It’s terrible. I have family members who are supposed to come from abroad for August, and I have to tell them not to come. They have a three year-old and eight month-old baby. No power and mosquitos don’t go together. The mosquitos are bad.”

Tribune Business has for weeks monitored Eleuthera’s BPL Hotline, a What’s App chat group created to inform the state-owned energy monopoly’s staff on the island of the location of power outages so they can take immediate action to resolve the problem.

The group’s posts show that multiple communities in Eleuthera lose electricity supply, sometimes several times per day, for extended periods of time. Besides disrupting commerce, and causing businesses monetary loss and inconvenience, this has for weeks and months disrupted the quality of life for residents and vacation rental visitors in one of The Bahamas’ fastest-growing island economies.

The consensus among Eleuthera residents is that BPL’s on-island staff are high performers let down because they are under-manned and lack the necessary spare parts inventory and resources. The island’s power and other utility woes are being blamed on Nassau’s tendency to “overlook” and “neglect” the Family Islands, and the failure of infrastructure to keep pace with economic and population growth.

“We are truly so tired of these outages. Right now, Eleuthera is one of the most economically advancing islands but our infrastructure is deplorable. The bills have increased drastically and people are appalled at the more than 100 percent increase,” one resident, Libronia, said in a What’s App post.

Addressing BPL’s Eleuthera staff, she said: “I am so sorry that you have to be faced with the outdated equipment causing outages and surges which, in my opinion, are causing our outrageous high billings. I pray that for you, your team and the residents of our beautiful island, we have both normalcy and relief some time soon from burning out and destroying our appliances. This is taking a toll.”

Ms Young, meanwhile, told this newspaper that she has written to MPs, Cabinet ministers and BPL chiefs for years to alert them to the plight of Eleuthera residents as a result of the power outages without getting an acknowledgement or reply.

Asked about the frequency with which electricity supply goes it, she added: “Every day. That’s why I said I cannot take this. I cannot. It’s terrible. Every night and every day it goes off. It’s the worst it’s ever been. I don’t think it’s ever got this bad. I’m a senior citizen. Next year I will be 70. I cannot go through this.”

Kristel Anderson, who with her husband operates Eleuthera Tours, told Tribune Business that Internet and phone services had been “down for two days” although the former had been restored on Tuesday prior to Independence Day.

Explaining that loss of phone service creates “a safety issue”, if her husband or guests have an emergency on the boat when at sea, she added that Eleuthera’s utilities infrastructure was now “much worse” than when she first started visiting the island in 2003 and had significantly deteriorated over the past four to five years.

“BTC and the Internet have been down for two days, and I cannot even call him to confirm if the guests have arrived,” Mrs Anderson said of her husband, explaining that she is presently in the US. “Every time you try to make a call it’s ‘no network found’ or you can’t get through, which is no good if he’s at sea and they have an emergency and he cannot call anybody.”

As to the overall state of utilities on Eleuthera, she said: “There’s nothing you can do to fight it. You have to learn to live with it, which is rather sad. I’ve been living in Deep Creek for 16 years, and coming here for 21 years. The infrastructure is much worse than when I started coming here. The last four to five years the infrastructure has gotten significantly worse.

“Obviously, quality of life, sleeping, is terrible. You cannot sleep right. We’ve learned to live around it.

“When I prepare food for the tour business, peas and rice and the like, I’ve learned to cook two days in advance. I cannot wait until the night before because I cannot depend on the current.”

Mrs Anderson said loss of BPL power immediately takes the Internet off-line because the regulator in Green Castle, which is used to push the signal further out, also goes down. The loss of Internet service

and computers also creates “inconvenience” for persons seeking to book tours online, although she added that this has not cost the company any business.

“One thing always seems to affect another thing somehow,” Mrs Anderson added.

“I want to make a t-shirt that says ‘Pick your struggle’ and says water, phone, Internet, electricity. Eleuthera, pick your struggle.”

She revealed that their home almost burnt down two years ago from a power surge, although the fire was extinguished in time, and said it took a four-year fight to obtain $800 in compensation from BPL for the loss of $1,600 worth of electrical appliances due to surges and dips in the voltage.

“I’m bringing back some solar fans and stuff like that to make sure I don’t have to sleep in my car. I’ve done that before,” Mrs Anderson said. “I’m anticipating having to sleep without power this summer.”

Annette Young, a Whale Point resident, told Tribune Business: “It’s just pathetic what’s happening here. It’s just become awful...

“We’ve just been neglected for years and years. We might be an Out Island, but we’re one of the highest revenue generators for the country.

“We’ve been overlooked and suddenly it’s catch up time. We’re behind the 8-ball on everything. The amount of people saying they’re leaving because there’s no power, no water, no anything... They’re checking in and out. They check out and they leave, and it’s not good for tourism and the entire country.”

Ms Young said BPL’s present woes on Eleuthera began six to 12 months ago. Unsure if the energy provider cannot cope with the increased demand, she added that she once had to wait 30 hours for power to be restored to her house after a fuse on a nearby pole became disconnected.

“I’m facing having to re-wire my kitchen with ground wire because it’s been zapped,” Ms Young said.

“I know a lot of people who have lost dishwashers, TVs and air conditioning units plus small appliances. They cannot seem to control the amount of electricity going through the wire. It doesn’t matter about party. This is going back years.”

She added that the Government and BPL have no choice but to provide the necessary funding required to address Eleuthera’s electricity network deficiencies and ensure that the power provider’s staff are properly equipped and supplied.