NASSAU, The Bahamas – The Water and Sewerage Corporation continues to rehabilitate, rebuild and/or upgrade the corporation’s network infrastructure on the island of Abaco, with resiliency and redundancy in the face of any potential future natural disaster at the core of its efforts.

Resiliency is the ability of a system, community or society exposed to hazards to resist, absorb, and recover from, the effects of a hazard/natural disaster in a timely and efficient manner, including through the preservation and restoration of its essential basic structures and functions.

Capacity building, disaster risk reduction and disaster risk management are all components of developing and enhancing resilience to natural disasters.

Redundancy, on the other hand, reduces the chances of single points of failure by duplicating critical components and pathways within the network infrastructure. It ensures uninterrupted connectivity for essential services during disasters, such as emergency response and public safety.

Minister of State in the Office of the Prime Minister with responsibility for the Water and Sewerage Corporation, the Hon. Leon Lundy, said WSC’s efforts have resulted in a “world class” system for the island that promotes greater resiliency and redundancy.  State-Minister Lundy also has responsibility for Disaster Risk Management among other portfolio duties.

“One of the key things we have done is to improve back-up supply to so many systems in Abaco -- Sandy Point, Crossing Rock, Casuarina Point, Treasure Cay, Blackwood, Cedar Harbour, Moore’s Island, Sweeting’s Cay.  All of these systems now have hurricane climate resistant generators and back-up generation that have been installed post Hurricane Dorian and have recently been completed.

“We have a world-class system that was implemented; we are using 33 per cent solar so we are trying to make sure that it's resilient and climate ready in order to make sure that we mitigate a lot of the situations that occurred during Dorian,” State-Minister Lundy added.

Officials say Abaco can now boast of having the most advanced water system throughout the Family Islands as a result of the corporation’s efforts on the ground – post Hurricane Dorian.

Those efforts include (since September 2021), the commissioning of the new Marsh Harbour Pumping Station and Solar Facilities that involved the installation of 540 solar panels generating 221 kilowatts of power, and the construction of an office building, pumping station, storage building, generator building and battery/inverter house.

Other completed projects include, the Treasure Cay and Spring City Sewerage Systems rehabilitation project, major water distribution improvement works in Central Pines and Spring City; the installation of climate resilient standby power generators at all Water and Sewerage Corporation facilities; the completion of the Grand Cay Storage Tank (that resulted in the installation and commissioning of a new 156,526-gallon storage tank), and road repairs in Central Abaco during which approximately 4,500 square feet of road was reinstated.

(The previous Grand Cay Storage Tank was completely destroyed by Category 5 Hurricane Dorian.  Reconstruction has resulted in the tank being able to provide 5 days of back-up supply.)

Standby generators were also installed and commissioned at the Sandy Point, Crossing Rock, Casuarina Point, Treasure Cay, Blackwood, and Cedar Harbour Pumping Stations, in addition to the Moore’s Island and Sweeting’s Cay Reverse Osmosis Plants and Pumping Stations, as part of building resiliency.

Additionally, 5,000 feet of 4-inch water mains and 45 water service laterals were installed as part of the Eastern Shores Water Mains replacement project. The corporation further facilitated the rehabilitation of the existing water main, and replacement of approximately 360 water service laterals as part of the Central Pines Distribution System Improvement Project that will improve the system and the water pressure in the area; the installation of 300 solar panels, generating 120 kilowatts of power at the Marsh Harbour Wellfields Solar facility, in addition to completion of new sewage treatment septic tanks in Spring City.

Post Dorian Projects include: major water distribution system works in Marsh Harbour, Central Pines, Eastern Shores and Treasure Cay; major rehabilitation of Treasure Cay and Spring City sewerage systems; the installation of standby power generators at all Water and Sewerage facilities in the Abacos; new potable water storage tanks for Marsh Harbour, Treasure Cay and Grand Cay, and the installation of a world-class, energy efficient, solar system with auxiliary grid power and standby power at the Marsh Harbour Pumping Station and Wellfields.

Cyprian Gibson, Deputy General Manager at the Water and Sewerage Corporation, said the corporation’s work in Abaco is ongoing. Gibson spoke to a number of near and medium projects anticipated. Among the near-term projects are the expansion of the Sweeting’s Tract water main; major water supply improvement works at Moore’s Island; expansion of the desalination capacity at Grand Cay, and completion of the Treasure Cay Administrative office facility.

Proposed medium term projects include the extension of the North Abaco Mains; refurbishment of the Pumping Station in Casuarina’s Point; installation of Booster Stations in Central Pines and Eastern Shores to improve water pressure in those areas; the refurbishment and upgrade of the Treasure Cay Pumping Station; installation of water mains in Murphy and Dundas Towns; and laterals replacement in Marsh Harbour, Dundas Town and Murphy Town in addition to the facilitation of Booster Stations in Central Abaco to improve the supply there.

“We have done a lot of work to systematically improve the water supply post Hurricane Dorian,” Gibson said. “Abaco currently has the most advanced water system that we have throughout the Family Islands. While there is still work to be done, I think it is important to put it into context that the Water and Sewerage Corporation has invested the most we have ever done in any Family Island -- post Dorian. We understand why (that is), given what they went through with Hurricane Dorian.”    (BIS Photos)

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