Only a day after the Securities Commission forced former soft drink bottler Hubert Pinder to withdraw his illegal 'private placement offer', the Water & Sewerage Corporation denied any association with, or endorsement of, Mr Pinder's water purification, Mr Pinder, a one-time partner in Pinder's Beverages with the late Progressive Liberal Party MP Philip Pinder, burst on the scene this month, after a long absence from the Bahamas.
He was touting a company called Cavitation Concepts, which launched at a reception at Caves Village recently organised by former ZNS executive and media personality Debbie Bartlett.
The event featured a keynote address by Ministry of Health Parliamentary Secretary Ron Pinder, who was said to be standing in for Trade & Industry Minister Leslie Miller, and an opening prayer by Bahamas Christian Council President, Bishop Samuel. Greene.
Senior Water & Sewerage Corporation officials also attended the event, which featured a small-scale demonstration of a distillation technology known as mechanically-induced cavitation.
The cavitation process refers to the disturbance of fluids to form vapour bubbles that release energy when they collapse.
Cavitation can be created by sound waves, lasers and pressure fluctuations among other things. Mr Pinder introduced an American named James Griggs who claimed to have produced "one of the most significant inventions of the 21st century".
His invention is said to combine several methods to initiate cavitation, which Mr Pinder said could clean polluted fresh water and desalinate sea water.
Mr Pinder later held a press conference at the British Colonial Hilton where he announced that Cavitation Concepts was seeking to raise $2 million from private investors to fund a large-scale trial of its "revolutionary" water purification technology in the Bahamas.
But according to government hydrologist Dr Richard Cant, the Water & Sewerage Corporation "has no deal with Cavitation Concepts for the production of water and as far as we know, nobody has applied this technology on a large scale or as a method of desalination.
"They have asked us about land on which to site a test plant in Nassau, but reliability and a good rate are the two key factors necessary for the Corporation to consider entering into an agreement to buy potable water They have yet to show that the technology is viable."
After the press conference, the Bahamas Securities Commission said the offering contravened the Securities Industry Act, 1999 and that Cavitation Concepts "will withdraw the offering and reissue it in accordance with the law". It advised the public to disregard the information Mr Pinder had provided at his press conference.
Mr Pinder did not return phone calls from the Guardian.
By Larry Smith, The Nassau Guardian
