By KEILE CAMPBELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kcampbell@tribunemedia.net

RESIDENTS across Eleuthera say unreliable water and electricity have become part of daily life, forcing some households to store water, rely on generators and organise basic routines around recurring outages.

The Water and Sewerage Corporation yesterday acknowledged water supply problems affecting North Eleuthera, Harbour Island and Spanish Wells/Russell Island, while Bahamas Power and Light said electricity had been restored to North and Central Eleuthera after a mechanical failure at the Hatchet Bay Power Station triggered rotational outages.

Residents told The Tribune the latest disruptions were part of a broader pattern stretching back weeks and, in some cases, months.

WSC said customers in Lower Bogue, Current, Upper Bogue, The Bluff, Oleander Gardens, Harbour Island and Spanish Wells/Russell Island had experienced periods of low water pressure or no supply over the past several days.

The corporation blamed lower-than-normal production at the Bogue Desalination Plant, heavy rainfall affecting the Bogue Wellfields and “other related utility issues”.

WSC said it was working with its desalination contractor and other utility partners and expected water production to increase this weekend.

At the same time, residents have been dealing with recurring electricity outages dating back to last month.

BPL said a mechanical failure at the Hatchet Bay Power Station this week left it without enough generation capacity to continuously supply North and Central Eleuthera.

Power was restored to all affected areas yesterday afternoon following rotational outages, according to the utility.

However, residents said repeated breakdowns had made interruptions a routine feature of life on the island.

Pastor Tavar Major, 50, a lifelong Harbour Island resident, said his household went about 21 hours without water between the previous day and yesterday morning.

He said water is sometimes shut off around 6pm and does not return until about 7am, a pattern he said has persisted for several months.

Pastor Major said the problem was particularly frustrating given the pace of development on Harbour Island.

As a property manager, he said he oversees private homes with swimming pools and large water tanks and understands the demands some properties place on the system.

His understanding is that Harbour Island now uses about 300,000 gallons of water a day.

“You have swimming pools being built every month-I kid you not-in Harbour Island,” Pastor Major said.

He said the government had also failed to keep pace with electricity demand.

“On the infrastructure side, the government’s not keeping up with the demand,” he said, “and that’s why we’re having these problems and they call them growing pains-but growing pains that should have been alleviated 10, 20 years ago.”

Pastor Major said residents have been forced to organise daily routines around when water is available, recalling people rushing home to bathe before scheduled shut-offs.

Michael Sweeting, 61, also blamed Eleuthera’s utility problems in part on the pace of development, pointing to new homes, rental properties and businesses coming on stream while existing infrastructure struggles to keep up.

“I honestly don’t see an end in sight simply because I don’t think BPL have the capacity for the construction boom and the number of new houses and constructions going on,” he said.

Mr Sweeting said electricity had gone on and off repeatedly over the previous three days.

His generator spared his household from the worst of the disruption, but he said the cost of fuel remained an inconvenience and residents without backup power faced greater hardship.

Although his area had experienced more stable electricity for nearly 24 hours, he said communities including Blackwood, The Bluff and Bogue continued to experience interruptions.

“It is so bad that people should not have to get used to not having power, and every day its like that,” he said.

Mr Sweeting called for stronger generation infrastructure across Eleuthera, saying simply adding equipment to the existing system would not be enough.

Samantha Butler, 36, said electricity had been going off repeatedly for two to three days, including one outage from shortly after 1am until about 8am and another that lasted almost the entire day.

Recurring water interruptions have also forced her family to keep supplies stored for basic needs.

“Every time I wake up to get my kids ready for school, no water,” Ms Butler said. “If you don’t have no water in jugs, the children have no water to be able to go to school.”

She said residents generally receive notices through WhatsApp groups about load-shedding, expected restoration times or damaged lines.

“It’s been going on so long now, we accustomed to it, so we put the water and stuff aside,” she said.

Judy Roberts, 52, of Harbour Island, said water service in her area had become so unreliable that residents were sometimes left without supply for days.

Her section of the island, which sits on higher ground, had been without water for about three days when she spoke to The Tribune.

“It still goes every day,” Ms Roberts said. “It goes off now every day. They cut it on for a few hours, and it turns off by night. It’s off by 6 o’clock.”

She also criticised WSC’s communication, saying notices sometimes arrive only after the supply has already been interrupted.

“When they do send out the notice, the water’s already off,” she said.

Ms Roberts said residents had previously been told the problem would be fixed, only for interruptions to resume.

“They said they’re gonna fix the problem,” she said, “but they said they fix it, and like two days after that, it went back to the same thing.”

WSC said its desalination contractor is carrying out work at the Bogue Desalination Plant and again said increased production is expected this weekend.

The corporation urged residents and businesses to conserve water where possible and report leaks or wastage.