By NEIL HARTNELL

and YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporters

“Stunned” Bahamian businesses in three Family Islands yesterday blasted the potential loss of water supply from Monday as “disgusting”, and said: “The government needs to step in like yesterday.”

Thomas Sands, the Eleuthera Chamber Commerce’s president, told Tribune Business that the island’s private sector was “blindsided” by Aqua Design Bahamas’ warning that it will cease water production from May 3 and leave residents/businesses in the island’s south without a potable supply.

“The Eleuthera Chamber of Commerce is stunned to learn of the statement by Aqua Design in relation to the intended decommissioning of water plants, specifically South Eleuthera,” Mr Sands messaged to this newspaper.

“Based on my recent conversations with residents and business owners, no one in Eleuthera knew this was coming. The situation is dire, and we are calling on our government to not allow this to happen. Potable water is a basic essential need. Not only will businesses suffer but most families in the community will be negatively impacted.

“Locals are asking: ‘How did we get here? If I pay my bill and others do the same, how do we get to this point?’ ‘How are funds paid and taxes collected being managed?’ ‘Is this bill related to the last 12 months, the COVID pandemic, or did this begin prior?’”

Mr Sand spoke out on the Chamber’s behalf after Aqua Design Bahamas, the owner/operator of reverse osmosis plants that supply potable water to the Water & Sewerage Corporation and its customers in South Eleuthera, San Salvador and Inagua, argued it had been “left with no feasible choice but to cease operations” in those three areas.

It blamed the move on the Water & Sewerage Corporation’s failure to settle $3.8m in outstanding debts due to it, although it did not say whether these related solely to the three plants in danger of being decommissioned, with another $740,000 bill coming due for payment on May 8, 2021.

Aqua Design said the second factor driving its pull-out threat is the Water & Sewerage Corporation “showing no interest” in renewing the contracts to operate the three plants, which have now expired. Acknowledging communities will be put “at risk”, it warned it will “decommission” its plants and remove all equipment that it owns unless the sums owed are settled.

Such a move will effectively make it impossible for the Water & Sewerage Corporation or any other private provider to take over water production at such short notice in time for May 3, but Aqua Design said it had “done everything in our power to avoid this action” but repeated efforts to resolve its grievances with the Water & Sewerage Corporation have proven unsuccessful.

Neither Desmond Bannister, deputy prime minister, and who has ministerial responsibility for the Water & Sewerage Corporation, nor Adrian Gibson, the latter’s executive chairman, responded to Tribune Business calls and messages seeking comment for a second consecutive day yesterday..

Jennifer Brown, president of the Bahamas Industrial, Manufacturers & Allied Workers Union (BIMAWU), which represents line staff at Morton Salt, said she could not imagine the Government allowing the island’s water supply to be cut-off as it would “lose Inagua completely” at the upcoming general election were this to occur.

“I’ll have to see that. I don’t think the Government is going to allow something like that to happen,” she said. “I honestly cannot believe it. I don’t think the Government is going to allow that to happen. This is election time, and they will lose Inagua completely if that happens.

“The Prime Minister is coming down here tomorrow [today], so I think they’ll have that sorted. I’m not even worried.” Ms Brown said other Inagua residents shared here views. While some were “very concerned, when you really think about it it’s not going to happen”. Residents were also used to storing water in tanks and drums for when supply was lost due to power outages.

However, Stephen Cartwright, owner/operator of Nagua Springs in Inagua, told Tribune Business that Aqua Design’s warning that it will cease water production on the island come May 3 is “disgusting”. and further warned the government that election is coming up real soon, so do something about this. 

“With all of the COVID-19 stuff, and you’re pulling out and closing down, and the whole island depends on that, that’s disgusting,” Mr Cartwright said. Acknowledging the debt said to be owed to the company, Mr Cartwright added: “The Government is dragging their feet. They have to do what they have to do. They have to pay it up. 

“I’ll tell you one thing; it’s getting towards election time. So if they should cut the water off in this island, they can call this island off.” 

Richara Goulbrune, owner/operator of Leara’s Fashion and the Inagua Drug Mart, said: “This is very depressing, because growing up here all of my life I never knew Inagua to be without running water.” 

Ms Goulbrune said she was concerned about the impact on her two businesses, lamenting that the situation is “very depressing” and that “the Government needs to step in from yesterday. I don’t know what they are going to do, but they have to act fast”. 

Marlon Leary, Inagua’s island administrator, said: “The community is very concerned about it because that is the only form of potable water on the island. You had one or two persons who had wells back in the day, but they have since filled them in and they don’t bother with them any more.

“This would be a serious issue because we are still operating under the emergency orders and we are advising people to adhere to the COVID protocols and stuff like that, but with the water being turned off this would make that virtually impossible.” 

Allison Mortimer, co-owner of J’s Discount in San Salvador, said that while she heard about Aqua Designs leaving the island, she understood the Government had already made contingency plans in case this happened. 

She added: “We heard about it that they are pulling out from San Salvador, but we just got a new plant that came in. We just got a new plant that came in so I don’t think that will really affect us. I know they mentioned it, but I know they just shipped a new plant in last month.

“We had a problem with the old reverse osmosis plant and they had to put another one in, which is the new one that came in. Even if they pull-out we have a backup with Water & Sewerage Corporation, so we will just sit back and weigh things out and see what happens.”