Tall Pines MP Leslie Miller says that the island of Andros is 12 to 18 months away from receiving potable water after long being a source of water dredging for persons in New Providence.
In a speech held yesterday at the Rotary Club of West Nassau, he spoke about a project that would enable the island to become self sufficient and provide water for its residents.
“One of the main projects we are doing this year is that we are going to try to put potable water in Andros. You know for the last 40 year – before Consolidated came into being in The Bahamas – we’ve been barging water from Andros to New Providence to enable us to have good drinking water and believe it or not the people in the area we get the water from don’t have any running water. So we got maybe a trillion gallons water from them and we haven’t given them any water for the water we’ve extracted in Andros for us to drink in New Providence. Hence, we are going to put potable water in area that heavily needs it and deserves it,” Mr. Miller said.
Mr. Miller also spoke about why the Water and Sewage Corporation only provides water for less than one third of the country and the problem facing water supply to inner city communities within The Bahamas.
“Now a lot of people may ask the question ‘why is it that the corporation only supplies less than 30 per cent of the households here in New Providence?’ It is because over the years, in most of the inner cities and inner constituencies in New Providence the corporation was not in a financial situation to put in the infrastructure that was necessary. In my area, Tall Pines there is no running water supplied by the corporation in Sunset Park 1 and 3. There is no water being supplied. I don’t know the total amount of water being supplie, but I know it is less than 30 per cent,” Mr. Miller said.
Miller also added that there are too many foreign entities that are providing potable water to residents within The Bahamas.
“It may also surprise you that we here in New Providence no longer produce any water. I believe any entity that has to buy water from a foreign consumer is a very dangerous thing. In the Family Islands just about all the water is supplied by foreign concerns, Andros, Abaco, Eleuthera, Exuma you name it almost every island in this country. Just a few weeks ago you had a problem in Eleuthera where the system broke down and the company responsible for the island is G.E. (General Electric) and in every island or cay and it is either ran by a foreign resident or conglomerate,” Mr. Miller said.
Mr. Miller said ultimately he would like for the country to be independent and be able to provide for itself without depending on foreign entities.
