Addressing the Caribbean Water and Wastewater Association’s annual conference Monday, Mr Roberts called for more guidelines “to protect residents from potentially harming themselves” by using polluted water.
He added that the government is considering approving a plan for a six-million gallon per day desalination plant at Blue Hills, which will meet projected demand for the next five years to offset reductions in water being barged from Andros.
The government has also agreed for a Grand Bahama company to do a feasibility study on providing New Providence with potable water by way of an undersea pipeline from Andros.
“This underscores the fact that my government is strongly committed to ensuring that adequate potable water is available to all residents of New Providence, Paradise Island and the rest of the Bahamas,” he said.
Hundreds of delegates and their staff from throughout the Caribbean, as well as representatives of various firms are gathered at the Atlantis resort on Paradise Island for a week of debate and presentations under the theme ‘Global Challenges…Caribbean Solutions.’
Government officials are on record as saying that groundwater extraction in the Bahamas poses a tremendous challenge and potential health hazard. And Mr Roberts acknowledged that more emphasis must be placed on municipal water supplies as opposed to private wells.
“Before, when naturally good quality water was readily available, that may not have been a big concern, he said. “But with all the growth and development, we are seeing a silent and stealthy encroachment overcoming our natural resources.
“Daily demands have now far outstripped the sustainable supply of water and without proper disposal facilities for both solid and liquid waste, we are adding more pollutants than nature herself can reasonably cope with.”
“Sooner than later,” he said, “more governance must be put into protecting our natural resources. Too much is at stake not to do so. (And) all those who take advantage of available natural resources must contribute to the greater good.
“More guidelines must be developed to protect residents from potentially harming themselves as a result of using non-potable water for potable purposes. More vigilance must be taken on what is being put back into the ground and other environs without regards to the effects.
“We must have a legal framework in place to ensure that what we are trying to do and achieve is coordinated so that those who refuse to comply must face the consequences.”
Fresh water reserves in the Bahamas are scattered throughout the country in localized lenses of various sizes and quality. But most water resources are concentrated on Andros, Abaco and Grand Bahama. All other islands have some degree of difficulty providing and distributing potable water supplies. As a result, the government has invested over $300 million in the last decade to meet infrastructural needs in the water sector.
The fresh water resources of The Bahamas are both finite and vulnerable to over-exploitation and contamination. Ninety per cent of freshwater lenses are within five feet of the land surface.
There are large numbers of private wells that access the public well fields, especially on New Providence. These are unlicensed and unmonitored and are a major impediment to water quality control and the forecast of supply and demand by the Water & Sewerage Corporation.
Potable water is provided by a combination of private concessions and public facilities. The Water & Sewerage Corporation operates 60 community water systems in the Family Islands and provides most of the public water supply on New Providence.
Desalination is becoming more common for small cays and large companies, especially resorts. A government reverse osmosis plant built in the last five years is located at Nassau International Airport and there are plans for more RO plants.
Sewerage services are provided by a central public system, which connects about 15 per cent of the population concentrated in the main urban centres of New Providence and Grand Bahama. All other sectors are served by individual septic tanks.
Sewerage is perhaps the biggest single source of marine pollution for the Bahamas. Effluent from septic systems can migrate rapidly through groundwater to coastal waters during periods of heavy rainfall or flooding.
New and improved treatment and disposal facilities are needed.
By Gladstone Thurston, Bahamas Information Services
