The Tribune

By Fay Simmons

Tribune Business Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

The Water and Sewerage Corporation plans to pursue loan and financing programmes to fund capital works throughout The Bahamas after completing its corporate business plan, it was revealed yesterday.

Robert Deal, the state-owned water utility’s general manager, said: “We have recently completed our corporate business plan and now getting all of the necessary approvals.

“Out of that, we’re going to be pursuing a variety of loan and financing programmes to address extensive capital works throughout the Bahamas, but particularly in the Family Islands, improving the reliability and the consistency of our water supply, but also in terms of our extended water supply to those remaining Family Island communities who may not have piped potable water at this time.”

Mr Deal said the Corporation has recently completed $6m of post-Dorian work in Abaco, and has a number of ongoing Family Island projects valued at $7m in Eleuthera and $10 million in Exuma.

He added: “From the Family Island perspective, the Corporation has quite a few projects ongoing. In recent times, we have substantially completed our works in Abaco, particularly our post-Dorian works. That’s in the range of about $6m worth of works completed between last year and this year.

“We also have extensive works going on in Eleuthera, particularly in north and central Eleuthera, on storage facilities. That’s in the range of about $7m. We also have extensive works going on in Exuma in the range of about $10m, extending water mains into Little Exuma, Baraterre and also extending water mains in Black Point. We have a lot of storage improvements there and a variety of other works.”

Mr Deal added that a $30m public-private partnership (PPP) for water main installation in Cat Island started in August, and similar projects are being finalised for Eleuthera and Long Island.

“We also have a very large public private-partnership project ongoing in Cat Island, where we have over $30m worth of water mains works that I’ve started in August and those are being ramped up. But that involves installing over 95 miles of new water mains in Cat Island to supply over a 1,000 customers and residents for the piped potable water for the first time,” Mr Deal said.

“And we also have two large PPP projects that are being finalised, and hopefully those will be announced in due course. One is for extensive weeks in Eleuthera and one is for Long Island for extensive works there, too.”

Mr Deal said the Corporation is still in the planning stages of allowing consumers to pay their bills monthly, and added that a major part of the transition is converting mechanical meters to smart meters. The first 5,000 smart water meters have been ordered, and there are plans to convert 60,000 meters throughout The Bahamas over the coming years.

He said: “We still in the planning stage, but the planning is going pretty good. And we obviously will make further announcements to our customers in due course, but we are planning that and obviously we’ll be working with the Government on how that is rolled out.

“Part of that, and as we talk about technology, the Corporation is also switching domestic meters from the historical mechanical meter to a smart meter, and we have ordered he first 5,000 of those we expect to be here in early 2024. Overall, we plan over the next few years to change in the range of about 60,000-plus domestic customer meters both here in New Providence and in the Family Islands.”

Mr Deal added that converting the water meters will also assist the Corporation in communicating with consumers as they will be able to detect and address leaks in their home faster.

He said: “What that will do tremendously is that will help us with moving towards monthly billing, but that would also help us in terms of communicating with our customers because those smart meters will be able to help customers identify that they have a leak in their home and to inform them so they can rapidly address the leak rather than the current challenge we have where customers are billed on a quarterly basis and only after quarter you get your bill you realide you have a high bill. And now it’s a more complex process”

Mr Deal said consumers on Cat Island and Exuma will receive smart meters when they apply for connection, and most large commercial consumers already have this variety.

He said: “The idea is that, particularly in Exuma and Cat Island where we have two large water main projects going on, that rather than deploying the historical mechanical meter that will be switched out shortly as the smart meters come in. Those customers apply for water connections, give them the smart meters

“Most of our large commercial, they already have very advanced meters now deployed in conjunction with Miya Bahamas, and those are billed and read on a monthly basis. But definitely the idea is to improve the meter reading efficiency on the accuracy of the meter reading process”

On the status of the Corporation’s tariff increase, Mr Deal said that although some studies have been completed they have to be reviewed and discussed with the Board and government.

He said: “There have been some studies that have been finalised but obviously those have to be reviewed, internally discussed with our Board, discussed with our minister and obviously with Cabinet before any formal announcements can be made.”