The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Briland residents were yesterday said to be holding an “emergency meeting” after power and water outages disrupted the tourism hot-spot’s Thanksgiving and run-up to the peak winter season.

Tribune Business obtained copies of a flyer, calling residents and business owners to a 3pm meeting at the Harbour Island All-Age School “to address the deficiency of water and electricity”, as one hotelier said the utilities woes had forced him to refund and compensate five sets of Thanksgiving guests.

Ben Simmons, proprietor of the Ocean View and The Other Side properties on Harbour Island and mainland Eleuthera, respectively, told this newspaper “we should be beyond this” with many in the tourism industry and wider business community now fearful of what lies ahead for the rest of the 2023-2024 winter season following these initial challenges.

The resort entrepreneur revealed that Bahamas Power & Light’s (BPL) electricity supply on Harbour Island was “down for four days” from Thursday, November 16, interrupting the lead-up to the Thanksgiving holiday and weekend which traditionally marks the start of the country’s winter tourism season.

And there was “such a huge surge” on BPL’s system that it caused the transfer switches on one of the Ocean View’s generators to burn out and catch fire. While BPL subsequently restored power to Briland early last week, the island was then struck by a water outage due to a “major mechanical failure” at the reverse osmosis plant that services North Eleuthera.

Mr Simmons said water system pressure was noticeably low on Thursday night, the Thanksgiving evening, and by Friday no water was available at all. Supply was finally restored yesterday morning, but he added that two guests had cancelled upon hearing of the water woes, while three others received discounts because they had to be transferred from the Ocean View to The Other Side on mainland Eleuthera.

“I think there’s a lot of disappointment that we’re starting the season on a low note,” Mr Simmons told Tribune Business. “A lot of people said ‘we’re not busy, busy yet, and we’re already having issues’. It doesn’t bode well for the rest of the season.....

“It’s less than ideal. It’s frustrating and disappointing. We should be beyond this. I’m 39 years-old, and not a year has gone by where we can say: ‘That was a good year. We had no issues with power or water’. When are they going to get it right?”

Mr Simmons, while unable to speak for other Briland businesses, said it was “definitely a couple of grand I’ve had to issue in discounts and refunds, and issues of that nature” due to the loss of Water & Sewerage Corporation supply alone. No water was available from Friday until mid-morning Sunday on a weekend when Harbour Island would typically be busy with tourists, second homeowners and vacation renters.

Turning the clock back to the beginning, he added: “We were pretty upset because it has been two weeks back to back with utility outages on the island. BPL’s generators were down for four days last week, and with system surges our transfer switches over-heated, burnt out and were catching fire.

“There was such a huge surge coming through the BPL line it blew the fuse and caught fire. Fortunately it happened during the day. Four days with no power.” Mr Simmons showed this newspaper a video of flames inside one of the Ocean View’s generators to prove his point.

BPL, in a November 18 statement, confirmed that it was “experiencing generation challenges as several units are down and need immediate repair”. It added that a team from mainland Eleuthera was being dispatched to help with repairs, but warned of further disruptions until the repairs were complete.

A BPL spokesperson yesterday affirmed these woes, and described them as “an extremely unusual event as we recently installed additional generation ahead of the Harbour Island Regatta in October to accommodate the additional load demands typical with this time of year”.

They added: “We flew in technicians who carried out work on the units. Incrementally, the units were repaired and supply was fully restored on Friday afternoon. Despite the full restoration, the technical team continued to work, ensuring that all six one Mega Watt units on the island are operable.

“Not only are we able to meet the current demands anticipated during this time of year but there is adequate redundancy to accommodate necessary maintenance or repairs.” Harbour Island’s concerns then moved from energy to water.

“We had five persons check out as a result of the water outages,” Mr Simmons said of Ocean View. “We have an extra reserve tank. It has a day, maybe two, of water, but we don’t have our own reverse osmosis. We ran out of water, and had to compensate those guests, give them a heavy discount for their disturbance. It’s really frustrating to operate a business in these conditions.

“We refunded two rooms. They basically heard there was a water outage and said they’re not going to come. We refunded those. There are other guests we’ve taken off to the mainland, to The Other Side, so we’ve had to move them from Harbour Island to Eleuthera. We’re more resilient there as we have our own power and water supply, but we had to discount them for transferring them. It’s less than ideal.”

Mr Simmons said he was also concerned about the impact on his staff who, lacking generators at home, were unable to take showers or perform other basic daily functions for four days due to loss of BPL supply. Then, four days after BPL was restored, the water supply went down.

The Water & Sewerage Corporation, in a November 25, 2023, statement blamed the woes on a “major mechanical disruption” at the Bogue reverse osmosis plant operated by its third-party contractor, Aqua Design. While wellfield water was being supplied to North Eleuthera residents, the Corporation admitted this was “insufficient” to provide for clients in Spanish Wells and Harbour Island.

“The one thing that’s consistent is there’s always a problem,” Mr Simmons told Tribune Business. “It’s just unsustainable for us; for anybody. It’s water and power, and we pay so much for it.” He argued that the utility infrastructure for Harbour Island and North Eleuthera has failed to keep pace with the area’s rapid development, with the reverse osmosis plant in particular not large enough to meet local and tourist demand.