The Tribune

By Fay Simmons

Tribune Business Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

South Andros residents and business owners yesterday branded the area's utilities and physical infrastructure as a "hot mess" that is undermining commerce.

Julian Gibson, owner of Eula Nixon Convenience Store and Last Stop Gas Station, said residents have become frustrated over both the level of service and crumbling infrastructure. He explained that he hasn’t received Internet or landline phone service since a pole was knocked over four months ago, while the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) office in the area is closed.

"People are frustrated because everything is falling apart in South Andros. The BTC office is closed; I haven’t gotten Internet in three or four months. Every couple of days I have to buy a data plan," he said. "The land line, somebody knocked down a BTC lamp pole about four months ago, so there’s no land phones in the area. It's like everything is crashing down in South Andros.”

Mr Gibson said the water supply is disconnected for several hours in the morning, and these issues even led to school closures last year. As for Bahamas Power & Light (BPL), he said he believes the staff on the island are doing a "great job" with outdated equipment.

"The water is off in the mornings for a couple hours. In September, the beginning of school, they had to shut down for a few days because there wasn’t any running water," Mr Gibson added. "The BPL manager here is doing a great job, but he has old infrastructure from Columbus days so only so much he could do. The light is a problem, the water is an issue, the telephone and the internet… I mean the Internet is a hot mess.”

Mr Gibson said South Andros has many activities that appeal to foreign and domestic tourists, but they need an improvement in services and infrastructure for the community to thrive. “South Andros is one of the most beautiful places in The Bahamas. We have a crawfish season, we have a pigeon shooting season when guys come from Spanish Wells, Abaco all over and pump money into the economy," he added.

“We have a bonefish season where some of the richest people in the world come to fish. We have coconut. All year-round we make coconut oil, coconut soap. We have a good thing going. All we need is the basic infrastructure. Just give us good utilities and roads and we can fend for ourselves. “

Eddie Johnson, a South Andros resident, said he has spent over $1,000 in repairs to two vehicles damaged by the area's roads. He added that residents are paying their utility bills and road traffic fees, but are not getting their money’s worth due to constant interruption in utility services and dated infrastructure.

He said: “Everything in South Andros is down. BTC is closed down, the light always on and off, the water is always on an off and the situation over here is very bad. We need some help and we need it fast.

“The infrastructure is old. It’s like all the garbage they don’t want they send it to Andros. It's nobody to complain to but we pay bills and we’re not getting use out of what we are paying for. The last set of infrastructure down here was from Pindling, and at this point the whole of South Andros need to do over again. We need infrastructural everything.”

Carnard Bethel, owner of Midway Wholesale, complained that the phone line for his business has not been reconnected even though he paid the $500 required some 18 months ago.

He said: “I had an application for reinstatement of my telephone. I paid $500 and I’ve been waiting a year-and-a-half. My business phone is still off. I’ve had to change my sign and put my cell phone number up so that customers can call and reach me.

“We have not been able to reach anybody in their office there. There is an engineer I can see passing in the van and, from time to time, I've been able to talk to him and get some information from him as to why the office is not open.”

Mr Bethel, who is also a former island commissioner and permanent secretary, said that although BTC is supposed to open the office in Kemp’s Bay twice a week he has not been able to see a representative to authorise the reinstatement.

He added that outside of BPL, the majority of agencies have poor communication with their customers in South Andros.

He said: “They have said that the person responsible for operating the office is in Mangrove Cay and should be in Kemp's Bay on Tuesday and Thursday every week, but we haven’t been getting that.

“The communication system is non-existing. The same is true for many agencies here, except BPL. They’re doing their best. We have some government agencies here, works and environmental health, but you can hardly get a hold of them.”