The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Water & Sewerage Corporation will today launch a $15m-plus initiative to replace more than 60,000 residential water meters as part of an $87.5m capital improvement drive.

Robert Deal, the state-owned water supplier's general manager, in written replies to Tribune Business questions revealed that installation of the first "smart meters" will begin today with the improved technology able to "more rapidly detect" leaks and prevent customers from running up high water bills as a result.

"The Water & Sewerage Corporation has received our first shipment of smart meters and installation will commence tomorrow [today]," he said. "We expect to eventually replace over 60,000 domestic meters across The Bahamas.

"These smart meters will improve our customer experience as they will permit us to more rapidly detect that our customer has an internal leak and to alert them to prevent high water bills due to internal leakage, which is perhaps our single greatest challenge with our customers who are presently billed on a quarterly basis and therefore any internal leakage is detected long after it commenced.

"Also, in parallel and as a part of our corporate business plan, it is proposed that we will transition from quarterly billing to monthly billing, and these smart meters will facilitate this process as these meters can be read by drive-by reading," Mr Deal added.

"Eventually it is proposed that a fixed network will be installed that will permit us to read all meters from our head office as frequently as we wish, thus eliminating labour-intensive meter reading. The initial smart meter installation programme is budgeted at $15m-plus, and this will increase as we eventually add the fixed network." He pledged that further details will be provided to the public on the monthly billing switch.

Mr Deal confirmed that the Water & Sewerage Corporation's 2024-2028 business plan has now received Cabinet approval, as well as that of its Board, with $72.5m worth of infrastructure upgrades taking place across multiple Family Islands as part of a drive to put the utility "on the path to becoming a world-class water and sanitation utility that meets and exceeds its customers’ expectations".

"As part of our Corporate Business Plan 2024-2028, the Corporation has identified a substantial capital development plan required to modernise and expand our water and sanitation systems across The Bahamas." the Water & Sewerage Corporation general manager said.

"This is compliance with the Government's mandate to Water & Sewerage Corporation that we must put Water & Sewerage Corporation on the path to becoming a world-class water and sanitation utility that meets and exceeds its customers’ expectations, is financially viable and operates in full compliance with all environmental and regulatory standards.

"Some of the work is already in progress and substantially more work is in the planning stage.... As part of the Cat Island public-private partnership (PPP) road paving and public infrastructure programme, over $30m of water infrastructure works is presently in progress. This is the Corporation's largest ever project on any Family Island," Mr Deal continued.

"At the end of the project, it is anticipated that over 98 percent of the homes and businesses on Cat Island will have access to piped, potable water for the first time. In parallel with this project, the Corporation has awarded contracts for two desalination plants for Cat Island - one to be located at Bennett's Harbour and the other at New Bight. These plants will provide a reliable supply of high quality potable water to the residents of Cat Island."

Mr Deal described Eleuthera as "perhaps our most active island" with $27m total projects either underway, about to start or planned. He added that these will bring "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," he said, 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.

"Over $10m of water transmission and distribution works are in progress across mainland Exuma to extend piped water access to the communities of Little Exuma and Harts/Barraterre, and to improve the existing water distribution network in the Georgetown area.

"In addition to the water mains works, booster stations are being planned for both the Steventon area to reinforce our water supply for western Exuma and for Little Exuma to improve the reliability of our supply for that area."

Turning to south Andros, Mr Deal said: "Over $5.5m in works are in the pipeline to upgrade and expand the water distribution system on Mangrove Cay, and to install a new water transmission main to connect the Kemp's Bay and Bluff water supply systems.

"A Long Island PPP road paving and public infrastructure programme is in the planning stage and, as a part of those planning works, Water & Sewerage Corporation is finalising the scope of works to complete the required water infrastructure for north (north of Millerton) and south Long Island (south of Clarence Town), and to connect the existing Simms and Central Long Island water supply systems by installing a transmission main from Wemyss and Mount Thompson."

The Water & Sewerage Corporation chief added that "planning is actively underway for a new desalination facility to serve the communities of Chesters and Lovely Bay, Acklins", while "works are presently in progress to improve the reliability of the water supply systems on" Moore's Island and Grand Cay in the Abacos. 

"Cabinet approval of the corporate business plan will now assist Water & Sewerage Corporation in advancing very active discussions with the Ministry of Finance and multi-lateral funding agencies to fund our capital development plan," Mr Deal said. 

"These agencies include the Inter-American Development Bank, the Caribbean Development Bank and the Green Climate Fund. These discussions are in the very advanced stages and we expect further public announcements in due course.

"As part of our corporate business plan, it is envisioned that the Water & Sewerage Corporation will implement a comprehensive Family Islands non-revenue water programme similar to what has been successfully implemented on New Providence," he added.

"The request for expressions of interest for consulting firms to assist in the initial preparation of this programme will commence shortly. Similarly, request for expressions of interest for firms to assist with our legal and regulatory reforms will also commence shortly."