The Tribune

By ANNELIA NIXON

anixon@tribunemedia.net

Residents in the Eleuthera settlements of Tarpum Bay and Rock Sound yesterday complained that the Water & Sewerage Corporation left them with no supply for four days due to repairs and mechanical failure.

The state-owned utility had released an urgent notice on October 6 alerting Tarpum Bay and Rock Sound residents that they would “experience reduced water pressure” for a few hours due to mechanical failure at the reverse osmosis plant responsible for generating the area’s supply.

Another notice was sent out yesterday stating that the interruption would last until 2pm. However, due to a delay, residents did not experience proper water distribution until hours later. Sylvie McCartney, owner of Hidden Persia, a restaurant and bar, told Tribune Business: “If there is no water, there should be no bill.”

She added that the water had been off for four days and those who did not experience complete water loss only had “drizzles” from the faucet. “Of course, we’ve had this problem for several months and we’ve had the water issue on Eleuthera for several years, but for the last four days we’ve had no water whatsoever,” Ms McCartney said.

“And for those that were, it apparently has something to do with others that are on elevations. The ones that are on higher hills get no water. The ones that are on flat land, they get drizzles of water and it’s on for a very short period of time and then it’s turned off.”

An owner of a food takeaway service in Tarpum Bay said when they report water outages they are told it is because their home is located on a hill. “So we’re on a hill,” they said. “So every time you report a water outage, Water and Sewerage always say, ‘Oh, it’s because you’re at an elevation, you can’t get water.’

“But I was like, that doesn’t make any sense because you all have your water lines up here, and me and my surrounding neighbours, we very rarely have water up here. Some persons who are lower, they will be getting a little, but it’s never enough water pressure for us who live on the hill to get any.”

Both Ms McCartney and the food takeaway service owner said they had to close their doors for four consecutive nights due to having no water. The owner of the takeaway said her restaurant is her only source of income and having to close for that amount of time is not ideal.

Ms McCartney said her business has only been open for a month and she is concerned about the reputation it will gain due to the many challenges it is facing due to water outages. “The only thing I can do is close my doors because even if you have people sitting at your bar, are they not going to need to use the restrooms?” she added.

“So that’s unsanitary. You can’t have people using your restrooms and you have no water. So I have been closing my doors just to be safe. You know, this is the first month, this is the introduction to the public. So I’m very afraid of my business reputation. I don’t want to take a chance and make someone sick.

“My grand opening is December 23, but before then, if someone gets sick, can you imagine how detrimental it’ll be to my business? Word of mouth is serious. So for four days I’ve just been sitting here just trying to figure out if I’ve made the right choice.”

The owner of the takeaway added that life with utility woes on Eleuthera has led to them having to ask their neighbours with electric pumps for water.

“One of my neighbors has a well with the electric pump so she allow us to get water,” they said. “So we have to take our bottles and buckets to fill, and yesterday my cousin came and she carried all of our jugs to go fill and bring back for us. She lives at a lower elevation but she said she still was getting a little water.”

Ms McCartney said she cannot wash clothes and conduct other activities that require water for her five-year-old son and 84 year-old mother that are dependent on her. She added that the quality of the water is not the best, noting that “it smells like sewage”.

“The only thing we can do with this is flush our toilets.You cannot bathe with the water. Do you know how my family is surviving? We’re catching rainwater. That’s how we’re surviving. I really feel like I’m on an uninhabited island,” Ms McCartney said. She and the owner of the takeout restaurant added that the advisory schedules are never right.

“They put out these warnings and then the lady pulls them back,” Ms McCartney said. “The press, whoever, from the Water Sewage Corporation, and she corrects it. And it’s like, consider the water going off at eleven. It’s going to go off at 9.30. So you run home and you try and fill up jugs of water just in case, because if you’re in a kitchen cooking, you’re going to be sweaty when you close.

“When you get off, the water’s off. You can’t bathe. So we’re basically back in the 1960s living out of buckets and bottles. This is just, I mean, it’s unbelievable that we’re actually in The Bahamas living like this. And the thing is, there’s no compensation from them for these extravagant bills that we’re getting because the people ride around and guesstimate your usage. It just keeps getting worse.”

The takeout owner added: “When they post their notice, the time that on the notice, they say, ‘okay, you’re going off at 10pm. The water will resume at 5am’. But that doesn’t really apply to us because we lose water way before, hours before that. And when they say water is scheduled to come on at a certain time, it’s still two, three, four hours before we actually get water up there.”

The Water and Sewerage Corporation did not comment before press time.