HOUSE OF LABOUR: As a result, environmentalist Sam Duncombe of Re Earth drew the contents of the columns to the management of the Bahamas Water and Sewerage Corporation. The corporation view of the material published and as complied by the World Bank was that although historically correct some of the statistics were somewhat dated. Michael S. Swan the Corporation Hydrologist submitted a more recent in-depth and very informative report for our perusal entitled “Global Assessment of Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Services 2000.
The following are excepts from that report for consumers who wish to be updated on these two important areas of our country welfare:
“The situation of drinking water supply and sanitation in The Bahamas was evaluated in 1995 and established the coverage of services at 94% for water and 100% for sewerage and excreta disposal. In both cases, the coverage of “basic” services in water and sanitation while adequate ignores the fact that the “Basic” level of service in most cases is not adequate and should not be seen as a national objective. There is growing concern of groundwater contamination from septic tanks and privies that meet the “basic sanitation” criteria.
Additionally, the shallow groundwater aquifers and coastal waters are easily polluted and represent a major public health concern.
The systematic disinfections of water continue to be a problem in the rural areas. The survey put the percentage of urban population receiving disinfected water supplies at 100%. It is important to note that most people living in the urban communities of New Providence and Grand Bahama received water that meets or exceeds the WHO Drinking Water Guidelines while in rural communities (Family islands), there are difficulties due to operational, resources and technical constraints.
In the area of sanitation, basic wastewater and excreta disposal facilities extend to 100% of the population, with the majority of population using on-site systems. The lack of sewage treatment facilities in the main population centers remains one of the critical sanitary problems in The Bahamas, as sewage contamination of the groundwater resource in the urbanized areas is widespread. Wastewater Treatment Plants provide service to 16% of the population in the capital city of Nassau and it is estimated that 90% of the wastewater collected through public sewers is effectively treated through use of primary or secondary extended aeration systems.
The groundwater resources of The Bahamas comprise the water, brackish, saline and hyper saline waters found in the near and deep subsurface and in lakes and ponds that intercept the surface. The freshwater resources occur as three-dimensional lens shaped bodies, which overlie brackish and saline waters at depth. These freshwater lenses are formed from percolating rain that collects as shallow bodies of water a few feet underground, floating above brackish and seawater.
Dare to the caustic nature of these aquifers their hydraulic properties are more variable than in regular aquifers. Yields are normally low and extraction has to take place over extended areas to avoid saline water intrusion. Average net recharge from precipitation varies from ten inches for the north western islands to below six inches in the southeastern portion of the country.
There is significant risk to the public supply from contaminated private wells via cross-connections. This risk was highlighted during an outbreak of Hepatitis A following a period of severe flooding in 1997. Most of the private wells tested during the Hepatitis A surveillance and monitoring exercises were contaminated with sewage, thus affirming results of previous field surveys, Seasonal variations in water quality are significant and there is increasing competition between water supply and agricultural development especially on the Family Islands. Islands by increasing financial sustainability and quality of water systems.
The inhabited islands of the Family Island are spread over a distance 400 miles from northwest to southwest and consist of islands larger than New providence but with smaller populations spread on small settlements. W&SC operates about 50 water systems on 13 islands with a total daily-metered consumption of 1.38MIG and 9,270 active accounts. It is estimated that private wells provided approximately .35MIG daily to more than 2,200 households in these islands. The figures above do not include Grand Bahama, where water and sewerage systems administered by W&SC were turned to the privately run Grand Bahama Utility Company (GBUC) in 1994. This utility presently serves 8,300 customers.
Several private franchises operate water services for small communities/tourist resorts in the Family Islands. In Abaco there are seven(7) such water systems operating privately or under development. In Eleuthera there are four (4) systems, two of which operate with a franchise agreement, and in Exuma there are several small systems that have no franchise agreements. In most of these cases the systems are operated by the managers of the respective resort are or private development, which frequently also operative small reverse osmosis (RO) plants to provide bottled water to their customers. A few bottled water companies have businesses in the Family Islands.
Daily consumption by households in the Family Islands varies. In Exuma and Eleuthera, daily averages were 65 IGD and 116 IGD respectively, while in Abaco the average was 109 IGD, just over the 97 IGD for residential piped water in New Providence. A series of factors explain these consumption levels and their relation to consumption in New Providence: (i) although average water tariffs (US$4.09/TIG) are about a quarter of those in New Providence they are still several times higher than Latin American Countries (normally around US$0.50/TIG), (ii) quality of service (pressure, salinity, reliability) is lower than in New Providence with the exception of Marsh Harbor in Abaco, some areas of Eleuthera refurbished during 1996 and Andros, (iii) many settlements have groundwater resources readily available although water quality generally is a problem, and (iv) average per capita income in the Family Islands is also lower than in New Providence.
Sewerage services on the Family Islands are for the most part by septic tanks and latrines, which leak into the underlying groundwater. Small communities forced to complement insufficient W&SC supplies with their own local wells are certainly at risk, although the use of expensive bottled water for direct human consumption helps reducing potential health problems. Keeping customers on the public potable water systems is especially important for environmental and sanitary reasons.
Quality water service in the Family Islands is highly variable, with some of the 50 systems receiving water of acceptable quality at good pressure and others getting extremely poor service.
Most of the water systems on Abaco have water of acceptable quality (salinity below 400 mg/1). However, the existing system in the resort of Treasure Cay, Abaco has severe salinity and odor problems. Individuals well fields are the source of water for four systems in Eleuthera South and most of the systems in Exuma are producing water with salinity levels above 1,200 mg/1 and some even above 2,000 mg/1.
The Eleuthera-South systems are very old; some of the piping is more than 30 years old and some of the wells have been in operation for over 60 years. Piping of Exuma systems is between 10 and 30 years old, but storage tanks and other components are older, some of them stalled in the early 1940’s. Some of the well fields are being over pumped and as a result water quality is deteriorating. A mains replacement programme was completed in 1995 connecting all systems in Exuma so a new well field could supply them.
The new well fields that will be developed have water of good quality, with salinity levels between 50 and 250 mg/1 at the operational depths, minor to nil odor and no bacteriological problems were found during the field tests. Consumers concerned about a more in-depth accounting of our Water and Sanitations Services should contact Michael Swain of the Water Corporation.
By Charles Fawkes
President of the National consumer Association and editor of the Headline News, the ConsumerGuard and the Workers’ Vanguard.
