By Fay Simmons

Tribune Business Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

ELEUTHERA residents are in a “dire situation” over utility woes, Minister of Works and Family Island Affairs Clay Sweeting said yesterday.

Mr Sweeting, who is also the MP for Central and South Eleuthera, said his constituents have “silently suffered” through frequent power outages and water disruptions for months.

He said: “For months, Eleutherans from Harbour Island to Bannerman Town silently suffered through a series of power outages, power surges and correlating the effects of prolonged disruption in the water supply and disruption in the delivery of communications.

“The situation on Eleuthera is dire. The lack of the services is now a public health crisis and also a serious safety issue. My constituents are suffering from heat exhaustion and mental exhaustion. My constituents have been disenfranchised daily, and this is an unacceptable situation.”

Mr Sweeting said he spoke with both the CEO of BPL Shevonn Cambridge and the Minister of State in the Office of the Prime Minister Leon Lundy, who has responsibility for the Water and Sewerage Corporation, on the outages and received an update on the situation.

He said Eleuthera should start to experience “some relief” to their electricity woes starting next week with the engine on Harbour Island set to be repaired yesterday and the Transmission Line project in North Eleuthera expected to be completed within the next two weeks.

He said: “We anticipate that the parts for the engine in Harbour Island will be installed and the unit will be operable by late Wednesday, and this will lessen the load of the Hatchet Bay power station, which will improve the supply to the entire island of Eleuthera.

“In North Eleuthera, BPL is nearing the completion of this phase of the Transmission Line project and while this work has been done, there have been periods of supply interruption in North Eleuthera for about three to four hours daily. This should soon subside within the next two weeks.”

He added that BPL will bring an additional six megawatts of rental generation online in August, which will improve capacity to North and Central Eleuthera and parts from a unit in New Providence will be shipped out this week to improve the generation capacity at the Hatchet Bay plant. This installation should be completed next week.

He said: “Finally, an additional 2.5MW of generation will be installed at Rock Sound Power Station by late August to increase capacity on the island of Eleuthera for customers. Efforts are ongoing to carry out tree trimming exercises in line clearing, and this is an ongoing process. Protection equipment has also been installed on the distribution system to ensure a more reliable service to the public. This programme should be completed within the next four or five days.”

Mr Sweeting said he is “confident” that the electricity and water issues in Eleuthera will be rectified and “more confident” that BPL and Water and Sewerage is “willing to do what needs to be done”.

He said: “I feel confident that we’re getting there and that in the next few weeks, you’ll see a difference in Eleuthera in regards to power generation issues, water issues. It doesn’t alleviate the fact that today, yesterday, the week before that water and power has been something that the people need.

“I’ve said it many times, it’s not a luxury, it’s a necessity for businesses, entrepreneurs, for old persons, for persons with babies, for schools. But I feel confident that we’re going to rectify it. And what I even feel more confident about is that they’re willing to do what needs to be done.”

Speaking to Tribune Business, Kristel Anderson, who with her husband operates Eleuthera Tours, voiced her frustration with the frequent power outages.

She said in the process of preparing meals for a tour the electricity was off for over almost three hours, then went back off a mere 12 minutes after it was reconnected.

The frequent outages have resulted in wasted food products as ingredients were ‘sitting there on the stove swimming in lukewarm water’ for hours ‘getting soggy and not cooking’.

Additionally, her discomfort was heightened due to the soaring summer temperatures

BPL released a statement yesterday, informing residents of Bannerman Town, Wemyss Bight, Green Castle, Waterford and Deep Creek that due to an “unexpected system failure” in South Eleuthera they were forced to schedule an emergency power outage from 5pm to 6.30pm.