The Tribune

The Water and Sewerage Corporation (WSC) yesterday said it has saved customers $5m over the past three years through improvements and upgrades to western New Providence’s Windsor wellfields.

Cyprian Gibso, the state-owned water utility’s deputy general manager, said in a statement that the project began in 2023 with targeted upgrades significantly boosting production by 71 percent of more than 150m gallons per year over a two-year period.

The Windsor wellfield, located near the Lynden Pindling International Airport (LPIA) (LPIA), is the original source of water supply for New Providence. The Water and Sewerage Corporation said that, when the project started, the wellfield was producing 215, gallons.

In 2024, that increased to 315m gallons, rising again to 367m gallons in 2025. The Corporation said that, with ongoing improvements, production is expected to increase by a further 18.5 percent in 2026 surpass 435m gallons this year.

“This represents savings of over $2m per year,” Mr Gibson said. “Over the three-year period, we have saved about $5m in water purchases of the more expensive, more energy intensive reverse osmosis water.”

The Windsor wellfield is a natural water resource that supplements 20 percent of the capital’s water supply. The rest of the water supply comes from BISX-listed Consolidated Water’s reverse osmosis plants at Blue Hills and Windsor.

The Corporation said it is now increasing capacity at Windsor, and this process allows the Water and Sewerage Corporation to reduce its dependence on higher cost desalinated water, lowering operational expenses while improving energy efficiency.

“This provides some relief while upgrades are being done to the reverse osmosis plants. The wellfield has been naturally recharging by rainwater, and now we can extract a large amount of water in safe and sustainable quantities and blend it with reverse osmosis,” Mr Gibson said.

“We have a number of wellfields that are recovering. What we are doing likewise is revamping these up. We have to adapt the wellfields to meet the new climate change norms, and we want to make sure that we are doing that in a scientific and sustainable way so that we optimise that incremental production from the wellfields but not over abstract so that it is protected for future generations.”

Mr. Gibson also encouraged Bahamians to connect to the public water supply because it is safer. “From our standpoint, we abstract and purchase water from protected areas and we have an obligation to produce that water to World Health Organisation (WHO) standards,” he said.

“We are also monitored by the Ministry of Health and Wellness. When it comes to individual wells, you may not be as consistent with putting in chlorine tablets. There may be cross contamination from flooding and alike. There is a certain level of professional monitoring that an individual may not be doing. When you are on public water supply that comes with that world-class monitoring.”