NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Water outages in the Central Eleuthera area has impacted numerous businesses and households over the past several months, according to residents who say that their lives have been disrupted.
Savannah Sound resident Julius Rankine said that the water is sometimes off for days at a time, adding its become such a frequent problem in recent times that many people in the community have started to accept it as the new normal.
“It honestly almost feels like the norm for the people right now, water outage has been so common for the last few months it’s like you know, you expect it to happen at some point, and it’s sad,” he said.
Rankine explained that it was not always an issue for them, but had become a consistent occurence.
He continued: “This isn’t something that happens, like once every six months, lately it’s been, water has just been off and we don’t know why but water was off today and they’ll turn it off at some point and then the water’s off three days from now, you know what I mean?”
“We’ve been dealing with a water issue I’d say for the better part of the last three four months, you know this is not regular.”
Savannah Sound is not alone in experiencing shortages; residents across the central Eleuthera district have had similar issues. Rankine explained that on Monday, after a workout at an establishment in the Governor’s Harbour area, he was shocked at the concentration of salt water from the bathroom faucet he washed his face with.
Rankine said: “In Governors Harbour it was horrendous, there’s nothing you want to do with that water. […] I was looking for fish, it was that salty.
“[…] In our area (Savanah Sound) we’ve been having the water shortages, the water outages for days, you know but when it did come on, it wasn’t nearly as salty as what they were dealing with in Governor’s Harbour.”
The central Eleuthera resident said conditions slowly deteriorated to a point where people couldn’t do simple tasks like washing dishes, or flushing toilets, adding that he believes the government can do “a better job with the water by far.”
Depending on where people are situated on the island, according to Rankine, some of his neighbors have experienced longer outages than others.
“The way that it works, because of the shape of the island you can have say for instance if I’m on a hill and your in the valley I would run out, if you only experience water outage for three days, I’ve been out of it for six,” he said.
Also, an owner of a local restaurant, Rankine said that he is disappointed that he ends up having to pay for more clean water from water bottles.
“I own a business, […] when water is out I tend to use a lot of the five-gallon bottles of water which is just more expensive. […] And honestly, my plight would be at the end of the day for the last couple of months people shouldn’t even have to pay this water bill, you know what I mean?
“You’re paying for salt water, you could just go to the water and dip in that yourself, if push comes to shove, so I would really wish that they would figure out a way, so that people don’t have to pay whatever that bill is at the end of the month; they would only have used that water out of necessity […] its just a messed up water situation and I wish that its something the government can do about it.”
The lack of water, especially for people living on hills has caused some of them to reach out to the community for help, according to Rankine, who said that some residents have been asking around for external amenities like washhouses when basic needs could not be met.
Another resident in Governor’s Harbour, Tatiana Molly said that although she and her husband are fortunate to have a cistern and not have to rely on city water, she is aware of the struggles of many in the area.
“Its been really bad for the residents […] just from like showering, they don’t feel clean because its from the ocean, like ocean water and a lot of people have reverse osmosis and they are unable to use their filtration system so they’re having to buy water,” she said.
Water is also connected to power in many instances, according to Molly.
“Power in Governor’s Harbour is off for like hours to days even at a time and so like businesses don’t have any fresh water so they’re having to call the waterman to come to deliver water for them so that they can wash dishes and do general business,” she said.
“[…] and then there’s a water bottle shortage because everyone’s buying water bottles.”
Minister of Works, Alfred Sears addressed the Eleuthera water issue in his address in the House of Assembly yesterday stating that last year when this administration came in they met the water system in Eleuthera hobbling along where the necessary upgrades were not undertaken.
Sears said after a meeting with his team, they are committed to resolving the problem.
