The Tribune

By Annelia Nixon

Tribune Business Reporter

anixon@tribunemedia.net

Eleuthera residents and businesses were yesterday told that the Naval Base reverse osmosis plant is fully operational and producing water again following repeated supply loss and reduced pressure last week.

The Water and Sewerage Corporation (WSC), on November 30, issued a statement informing the customers that the three desalination trains at the plant are again online.

“The Water and Sewerage Corporation wishes to advise its customers that as of 9.15 am today, all three desalination trains at the Naval Base Desalination Plant are fully operational and online,” it said.

“Over the past several days, the plant experienced a series of mechanical failures that reduced production to two of the three trains. This temporary loss in capacity limited the volume of water available for distribution and resulted in periods of low pressure or no water for some customers, particularly those in higher-elevation communities.”

Jethro Armstrong, who resides in Eleuthera, said conditions became unsanitary when persons did not have water to bathe, flush toilets or brush their teeth with. While he said the water quality was “OK”, residents did not have water for three or four days in a row.

“Everybody on this part of the island was impacted,” he said. “I'm down in Central Eleuthera. The water just goes out for two or three days at a time, and it's very frustrating. It's been out all day, and then sometimes it's different amounts of water for different areas. So some people have water while others don't because the pressure doesn't reach. But it's not a consistent service.

“It's been really tough. If the water's not out, the power is out. If power's not out, the water's out. A lot of times we go whole days where there's no water and no power. So it's quite frustrating.”

To ease the burden on its customers, the Water & Sewerage Corporation said its teams “provided support through tankered water until full restoration could be achieved”.

It added: “With all three trains now back in service, we are distributing water at maximum capacity over the next several hours to fully repressurise the system. Our goal is to ensure water supply is completely restored to every customer in Central Eleuthera.” 

Mr Armstrong said service was not accessible to those who did not have water storage tanks.

“To be fair to Water and Sewerage, they did organise water deliveries free of charge to various people, but not everybody was able to access them because not everybody has tanks,” Mr Armstrong said. “So if you have back-up tanks, they'll come and fill your back-up tanks and you can have water for a couple more days. But that's only certain people. So it's not very equitable.

“I know there was a lady down in Palmetto Point who doesn't have any water tanks, so she just was unable to shower for four or five days. She's an elderly lady so what is she supposed to do? She can't carry five gallon waters from a friend's house. So it's all very difficult. It puts people in a very difficult position.”

Mr Armstrong clarified that the Water & Sewerage Corporation workers are doing their best and infrastructure is the issue. 

“Our experience has always been that the people here on the ground, the guys servicing the water, or the guys doing the deliveries, or the guys digging up the roads, trying to solve the issues, are working super hard and are unbelievably nice, and they're absolutely doing their best from Water and Sewerage and from BPL (Bahamas Power and Light),” Mr Armstrong said. “But even they are stuck, because the infrastructure is obviously too old, has not been maintained correctly over many years.

“So. It's this really sad situation where everybody on the island, including the people who work for the company, are frustrated, and it's not any of their fault. It's just the lack of investment over many years, and puts everyone in a very, very frustrating, intense position.”