The Tribune

By KEILE CAMPBELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kcampbell@tribunemedia.net 

WATER and Sewerage Corporation (WSC) General Manager Robert Deal yesterday pledged to Eleuthera residents that the corporation is making progress on long-overdue upgrades to the island’s water supply.

Mr Deal provided an update on the longstanding issue at a press briefing at the Office of the Prime Minister on Friday.

“The corporation is, along with the government of The Bahamas, in very high-level dialogue with the desalination company who runs essentially those four plants in Eleuthera, and hopefully in short order, the government will make a further announcement as to what exactly the next steps are with respect to that,” he said.

Eleuthera’s water supply has been plagued by interruptions, particularly in Harbour Island and Spanish Wells, where tourism growth has increased demand for piped water. 

Residents have frequently faced disruptions linked to infrastructural limitations, power supply issues, and aging desalination plants.

Mr Deal pointed to the progress made in improving storage facilities and production capacity, particularly at key sites across Eleuthera.

“In Harbour Island, we would have, you know, a year or two ago, we had a leaky tank in Harbour Island. That was a real challenge. The corporation has issued a contract for two new tanks for storage tanks for Harbour Island. The first one has been completed, and that's now in operation,” he said.

The 200000-gallon leaky tank that previously caused water losses has been demolished, Mr Deal said. The second tank, once completed, will bring total storage capacity on the island to approximately 500,000 gallons.

Mr Deal also confirmed similar upgrades for The Bogue, another critical water facility in North Eleuthera.

“We had only a limited 250000-gallon tank there. We put in a new 1 million-gallon tank, and also a 500000-gallon bladder tank. The 500000-gallon bladder tank is in service, and the 1 million-gallon tank is completed, but we just now completing the pipe work for that.”

In Central Eleuthera, where residents have also experienced water shortages, WSC has been working with the private desalination company to expand production capacity. Deal said efforts to improve the robustness of the water network are well underway, particularly at the Naval Base site.

“Earlier, mid to late last year, they brought in another desalination train at the Naval Base,” he said, adding that there has been a noticeable improvement in the reliability of supply.

Beyond production capacity, Mr Deal pointed to a critical issue affecting the effectiveness of Eleuthera’s water system: power supply reliability. 

WSC relies on desalination plants that require a stable power source, but frequent power outages in Eleuthera have led to disruptions.

“We've had some power supply challenges, so we heavily depend on diesel generators as backup and in many cases, providing power on a regular basis,” he said.

He credited recent cooperation with Bahamas Power and Light (BPL) for making some improvements in addressing power reliability issues.

He said: “We’ve had some very productive dialogue and assistance from—and we want to say thank you to—our sister utility BPL. They have done a lot. We’ve had a lot of improvements at both The Bogue site and at the Naval Base over the last several weeks, and so we are seeing an improvement in the reliability of those systems.”

However, Mr Deal admitted there is still “much work to be done” on Eleuthera’s water system, and WSC is working to secure government approval for a new pumping station at the Naval Base to further improve efficiency.

Plans are also underway to expand the water distribution system to more communities as part of the government’s broader effort to provide universal piped water access.

“The ongoing road paving project will also expand pipe network to those communities. So wherever Bahamians are, the goal is to ensure that they have piped water supply,” he said.