Uh ... if a customer on Eleuthera fails to pay their water bill, W&S sends a crew out to shut off their water. Period. Now, when W&S fails to pay its bill, and the water supplier does the same, the government is OUTRAGED!

My water bills there normally were $70-$80; I once received a bill for $637 — and when I questioned it and tried to get an explanation for such an outrageous bill, W&S simply came to our property and shut off our water, forcing me to pay up ... a clear form of extortion, and W&S never was able to justify it, repeatedly refused to provide an explanation. It was theft and extortion, plain and simple.

I certainly sympathize with the people of Central Eleuthera who were without water, as I’ve been in their shoes during the many long periods when the water system simply didn’t function. But, believe me, W&S is hardly blameless here. On Eleuthera, they’re practically a criminal enterprise.

You are right.

Just goes to show, Aside being incompetent, government administrations cannot be trusted
to live up to political promises or Contractual obligations.
And yes, the people will always suffer the above, and continue to vote for them!

I totally agree with one of the writers comments above. The staff at W&S on Eleuthrea are very, very disrespectful. They seldom answer the telephone and when they do, they never have any definitive information, with regard to your call.

It sometimes take months to get a water meter connection - unless you are in the click or (F,L or F)

Moreover, they make you pay for infrastructure - that sometimes already exist in the area (they did this to me) where they are making the water connection to your premises.

Trust me W&S acts like the mafia on Eleuthera.
I beleieve that the Minister should take a look at the entire operation up there.

If we are going to develop our family of Islands: W&S, Cable Bahamas, BTC all need to get their act together becaues the amount of time that it takes to get an answer about a request for service, or the service itself from these three (3) entities is POOR, POOR POOR

If Bannister wants to get people on his side he can release the details on what is owed and what is in the Contract. Then the people can decide if he is right. As it is i would guess that he is wrong and just using foreigner as a get out for his own incompetence.

Yes. Simply pay your bills until you can negotiate a new contract. Bannister is out of his league. Probably legally, as well as, logically. There is a history of ignorant and petty so-called leadership in this country. Bannister seems to exemplify the rot of both parties. Both have had their chance to better the lives of Bahamians. Both have chosen to enrich themselves instead.

Ok bloggers lets get to work on this one.

Who is Suez? Looked it up on the internet and can't figure out where this company is based or who owns the company. Seems extreamly international and fluid.

Why is it when we want to buy planes for BahamasAir we go to Airbus Italy ($250m). Whey when want to buy fossel fuel power plants we go to Shell in the Netherlands ($100m), why when we want to defense for boats we go to Europe? Why is it when we want to borrow $600m we go to Credit Suisse in Switerland? Why are we dealing with these types of people when they have all black listed us and now cutoff our water?

Ok on the reverse side. Who come to our rescue during Dorian? America. Who comes to our rescue during Covid19 - America.

So, when it come to money going out we go to corrupt black listing Europe but when we are being wiped out by hurricanes and pandemics we look to America. When we need tourist we look to america.

Why can't we deal with America? The planes, boats, diesel/fossil generators and now essential water are all wrong for our islands but there must be something really nice about dealing with the Europeans and non transparent companies like Suez....wow! I never even heard about them and this contract before. They must have kept it on the down low.

America has a law called the Foreign Corrupt Practices act which stops American companies from paying kickbacks to foreigners.

America has a law called the Foreign Corrupt Practices act which stops American companies from paying kickbacks to foreigners......is exactly why our crooked politicians do not use American companies

> Aqua Design added: "Rest assured we did not make the decision lightly. By not paying their bills, Water & Sewerage Corporation has risked water supply for the people of Eleuthera, and their non-payment has now brought this to a head at an unfortunate time.

Spin and outright lie as they may, Desmond Bannister and Hubert Minnis know full well, as do the good people of Eleuthera, that the financial viability of Aqua Design's water production plant has always been very much dependent on the government owned W&S Corporation settling its contractually agreed debts to the plant's operators on a timely basis.

And the forever deceitful, incompetent and useless Desmond Bannister and Hubert Minnis alike, don't want us to know that government is now also having great difficulty in paying its debts to Consolidated Water, the foreign owned company that produces for W&S much of the water for the residents of New Providence. The situation is apparently becoming so desperate that the Minnis led administration is actually considering the need for W&S to start rationing its supply of water to residents and businesses in New Providence. Simply unbelievable!

Didn't Mr. Bannister mention the other day that they wanted to spend $20 million to build sidewalks? If you can find $20 million for sidewalks, you should be able to pay your creditors.

Oh, slam!

Bingo! There are no bounds to Bannister's very deceitful and lying ways. He's as useless and incompetent as they come, period!

Surely it should be a condition of new build homes have a catchment tank size dependant on factors such as number of bathrooms, roof area and so on.. my catchment tank is in regular uae but pity people with older houses.

I agree ... our old home had 3 cisterns with catchment connection ... but in the dry season, that didn’t meet the need, even as we were careful with water usage.

W&S operates like the mafia in Eleuthera. If you are not (F,F or L) it could months to get a water connection. Moreover the staff is very, rude and uncaring.

Repost:

"PM and his band of minions are all short-sighted, greedy, corrupt, self-serving, power-hungry, glory-seeking, highly dangerous fools. Did I leave anything out?😂🤣😂"

They also lie a lot!

Why does Cabinet not call a vote of no confidence in their leader? Why does the Free National Movement or another political entity not offer up a group of sincere, intelligent citizens who can at least attempt to pull us out of fifty years of muck and mire? We are getting closer and closer to the point of no return.

BPL just disconnected over 8,700 customers for non-payment, during a pandemic "endangering the lives" of Bahamians. I didn't hear Mr. Bannister then! When people don't pay their bills, service gets disconnected.

http://www.tribune242.com/news/2020/oct…

I believe the government owes Consolidated Water Co. many millions of dollars to produce water for Nassau. Lets hope they pay up before the same thing happens here!

So this lawyer turned politician is upset that the company supplying potable water under contract to the government owned WSC has stopped supplying water because the WSC has not paid for it for a long time? I am not a lawyer but there seems to something very wrong with the government's position. I wonder how it would stand up in court?

If I'm not mistaken, the law requires cisterns to be built for out island houses.
Hmmm.
Another complete long term failure to administer the law?

This is absurd! The comment that WSC does not have the money to pay SUEZ on a contract that our government negotiated, apparently numerous times, tells you how our government has gone to pot. What about when our poor souls tell WSC or BPL they don’t have enough money? CLICK! No one cares-you are cut off-and then maybe a re-connection fee. The government just has to go to Supreme Court to get it turned on. Where do we Bahamians go? What happened to all the money that the Eleuthera people paid? Probably being used to keep water on in Nassau. Why would anyone trust our government? They don’t pay their bills. How do we know airplane maintenance is being done? It’s a slippery slope!