REMARKS
BY
HONOURABLE
BRADLEY B. ROBERTS, MP
MINISTER
OF WORKS AND UTILITIES
LUNCHEON
MEETING
CHOICES
RESTAURANT
COLLEGE
OF THE BAHAMAS
THURSDAY,
17TH AUGUST 2006
NASSAU
BAHAMAS
“THE
IMPORTANCE OF WATER QUALITY
Ladies
and Gentlemen,
It
is always a pleasure and an honour to be here today to bring remarks to my
brethren of Rotary Club of West Nassau. Thanks to the internet, I have been able
to follow the activities of this Club and wish to congratulate you on your
continuing progress as a member of the Rotary Family.
It
was suggested that the topic should be my thoughts concerning “importance of
clean water” therefore I will entitle these brief comments as:
The importance of clean water in the
provision of piped water in the Bahamas.
I
am sure that many of you will have heard, or read, comments made by me
concerning the importance of water, and I mean pure, fresh water.
Water is essential for life and therefore it is the most critical of all
the responsibilities I have in my present portfolio. Good roads, airstrips, bridges and docks make life better
for us but without water there is no
life. Man has lived for thousands of years without telephones and electricity
but not without water.
You
will all have heard through the media that water and its availability is
expected to be the next major cause of wars in the world, and that mankind must
give this very basic need far more attention than it has received in the past.
From
a Bahamian perspective, provision of piped water as a utility operation, has
been very much neglected, mainly because it was always easier to provide this
service for oneself, relative to things like telecommunications, or electricity.
A simple rainwater tank or shallow well would suffice for our basic
needs. This has now resulted in a proliferation of private wells.
This provides a supply, but raises the question on the quality of water.
Our
tourism business in these times demands high quality water supplies, and we
ourselves have raised our standards so that only water that is regarded as
“bottled water” quality is all that is acceptable for drinking.
If there is any major adverse incident, God forbid, like someone dying
from drinking water in the Bahamas, no doubt this will have a rippling effect
and is unlikely that we will stay in the tourism business for long.
Through
most of the 20th century, we could only make use of water that was
obtained from natural sources, or rainfall collected below ground level
overtime.
This
groundwater interfaces with our sea water level and “literally” floats in a
delicate balance. Groundwater
quality varies from rainwater →fresh →brackish → seawater
If
it was just brackish water that was available, we had to make do with that.
As far as treatment of this water was concerned, this was minimal and may
or may not have included chlorination which is used to kill off any living
organisms.
With
continuous improvement in water treatment technology today, we have another
option, which is desalination, whereby through various processes, salt and other
particles, are removed from seawater. Desalination
in the Bahamas today is usually provided by the specific process known as
Reverse Osmosis, and by this means we can provide ourselves using our abundance
of pristine seawater as a source. It is more costly than the natural options, because it is
usually an energy intensive operation.
In
almost all our islands, we have had to start to make use of the desalination
method in order to cater to the demands of our visitors and ourselves.
Even slightly brackish water – “which is not in itself a threat to
our health” – is not now acceptable. We
all want and demand high quality, pure water!
By
using Reverse Osmosis, we are able to deal with the one major problem that
impacted the Bahamian environment: excluding
salt out of our water.
As
Minister responsible for water since 2002, I am pleased to report that
the Water & Sewerage Corporation has brought more than one dozen Reverse
Osmosis Plants into operation, supplying quality water on ten (10) of our Family
Islands including New Providence. The
other locations are: Ragged Island, Bimini, Inagua, Great Exuma, South Eleuthera,
Central Eleuthera, Moores Island Abaco, San Salvador, and Staniel Cay, Black
Point and Farmers Cay Exuma. I am now in the process of bringing similar sources
of supply to another four (4) Islands which would include Green Turtle Cay Abaco,
Acklins, Long Cay, and Sweetings Cay, Grand Bahama.
What
about those other threats, namely:
diseases and various poisons? While
R.O. does remove micro-organisms and chemicals from our water, this is not
enough. The World Health
Organization (WHO), whose policies we abide by, emphasizes the need to use
chlorine because this has a residual effect and continues to disinfect.
It is a WHO requirement that we must chlorinate the water that goes into
our distribution systems, so that there is a constant process of disinfection to
prevent recontamination of the water.
Bottled
water is usually only treated by ozonation or UV (ultraviolet) and it is then up
to the user to ensure it stays good. Sometimes,
it does not.
Many
of you may not like the faintest trace of chlorine in your drinking water, but
I’m afraid we must have it, according to the WHO.
Besides
chlorinating the water, modern utility companies are also obliged to monitor the
quality of the water in their piped water system. For every so many thousands of persons supplied, water
quality must be tested in a laboratory a given number of prescribed times, every
day. This is what the Water and
Sewerage Corporation does – some 300 samples are taken every month and tested
in New Providence and this requires some 6,500 separate analyses.
These
tests are also carried out in the Family Islands but of course, the frequency is
reduced for logistical reasons. The
Public Analyst also tests the water on a similar frequency so it is always quick
to tell the Corporation, and other suppliers and private well users when the
water fails the required tests.
Fellow
Rotarians and guests, providing piped potable water is not a simple task.
The procedures that are involved have developed over many years and no
doubt they will continue to evolve into the future.
For this reason, we always need to keep abreast of current thinking, and
technology. Well-educated and trained staff will always be required in
the water supply business and the current administration strongly acknowledges
this.
Fellow Rotarians and guests, as mentioned, in addition to our vibrant Family Island program, this
Government has also been active in New Providence, where we are responding to
the loud cries of the people for a government that recognizes and addresses
their basic needs. This Government
recognizes and understands that the supply of water to a modern metropolitan and
fast developing city and major touristic destinations cannot be predicated on
the barging of water and mining of depleted well fields.
The Christie Government, true to form, sought to address this perplexing state of affairs. Consistent with our PLP philosophy, we have awarded a contract to the Consolidated Water Company Limited for a five (5) million imperial gallons per day, desalination plant at Blue Hills. This plant was partially commissioned last May and has already begun to supply 1.6 millions imperial gallons per day of potable water. Full commissioning is expected by the end of this month.
Fellow Rotarians and guests, the Government recognizes that the barging of water from
Andros, which was intended to be a temporary solution, was allowed to drag on,
becoming increasingly expensive and unreliable, due to adverse weather
conditions and mechanical failures. The
reality is that the price of RO water is cheaper than the cost of barging and is
not subject to weather conditions. In
addition, special purpose water barges are becoming increasingly scarce.
The Water & Sewerage Corporation strategic plans for eradicating the water problems in New Providence extend beyond the Blue Hills RO plant and we are finalizing negotiations for another plant for northern New Providence. In addition, directives have already been issued to initiate plans for yet another plant in the Winton area.
The PLP Government believes that the Blue Hills RO plant
represents an historic step in our vision to guarantee the supply of high
quality, reliable potable water to each and every resident of and visitor to New
Providence and Paradise Island.
The
giant steps made by Perry Christie’s Government
in the provision of potable water in four short years in our Bahamaland clearly
acknowledges the importance the Government has placed on this vital
commodity and our declared strong
and deep commitment to providing
this basic necessity throughout the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. Our ongoing
plans will, in the next few years, secure our potable water needs in New
Providence and the Family Islands for the next decade.
Thank you.
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