ABACO, The Bahamas – Abaco’s water storage tank leaks and distribution issues will soon be no more. A new tank is presently being constructed in Marsh Harbour that will replace the old, leaky, hurricane damaged tank and triple its water capacity.

During a stopover visit, Executive Chairman of the Water and Sewerage Corporation (WSC), Adrian Gibson said supply and storage issues will be reduced to a bare minimum with the construction of the new tank that has a 1.5 million imperial gallon capacity.

Mr. Gibson led a small delegation on a stopover visit to Abaco, March 29, 2021 to assess water operations on the northern island. He was joined by Elwood Donaldson, General Manager, and Cyprian Gibson, assistant general manager, Family Island Division. Clarington Anderson, Assistant Supervisor, Operations; Donald Rolle, Administrator for South Abaco; and Brian Graham, Project Engineer, Water Missions, were present.

“We are hopeful of having this new tank constructed during the next month or two so that we can switch over and be able to more efficiently supply water for the people of Abaco,” said the Executive Chairman.

“This will build resiliency, build capacity and help the people of Abaco return to a sense of normalcy.  It will also lend to development in Abaco over the next 15-­‐25 years.

“In addition to what you see at this site, we have had to address distribution system issues; pipes have literally been ripped out of the ground during the hurricane,” he said.

A patchwork system was introduced to renovate and restore buildings in order to provide a consistent supply of water for residents of settlements in central Abaco north to Treasure Cay, and in the south from Spring City to Murphy Town.

“Behind us is a tank that has a lot of leaks; the tank that is currently being used to store water and provide for the people of Abaco while we construct the new tank and establish a completely new operational site.

“Given the leakage and damage to this tank, WSC teams have had to cut back [on water] at certain times of the day to rebuild storage so that when persons get up in the morning they are able to bathe, cook etc.”

Moreover, thanks to Water Missions and UNICEF, two missions dedicated to assisting Abaco with recovery efforts, a solar park has been constructed.

“I am proud to say that WSC is the first utility in The Bahamas to have a solar park on site. If there is a hurricane the magnitude of Dorian and we lose BPL power we will have solar panels to continue our generation and production of water providing power,” said Mr. Gibson.

“We also have back-­‐up generators that are being installed at these buildings so  we will have resiliency upon resiliency. We’re not taking any chances and we want to build a site that will pass the test of time. We anticipate that once we commission this site over the coming months this would reset the way water is produced and distributed in Abaco. In the next 2-­‐4 months we should be up and running. We’re excited about coming here to finally commission this site,” he added.

Graham said the role of his non-­‐profit organization, which has teamed up with WSC and UNICEF, is to implement a solar solution – solar power. He explained that the system is designed to supplement the power supply by 30 percent.

“If the power grid goes off after a large event like [Hurricane] Dorian we would be able to supply power in the interim, and also on a daily basis it would reduce the power consumption from the grid power,” he said.