No running water on Grand Cay; “crisis” affecting visitors

Frequent disruptions in water supply on Grand Cay have residents up in arms and visitors to the small community threatening to pack up and leave.

"It gets ofd not being able to wash the boat or folks staying at the hotel not being able to get showers," said one irate resident, who said visitors to Grand Cay may decide to return home if the situation does not improve.

According to North Abaco Member of Parliament Kirk Cornish, executives of the Water and Sewerage Corporation (WSC), including Chairman Sylvanus Petty, have visited Grand Cay twice in the last week to inspect the storage tank. He said WSC was in the process of filling the tank to provide water to the community but warned it is a "slow process".

"We are asking you to please bear with us as to fill this tank is going to take some time and to supply you with water at the same time. What is happening is we are filling the tank and having the water treated with chlorine so that we can get approval from the lab in Nassau. Once this process is completed we will start pumping water from this tank to the community," he said.

"Hopefully, the intentions are it will stop the outages that we are experiencing where we have to cut the water off at night to build storage and it would be continuous water moving forward."

However, a frustrated resident lamented, "This is unreal. This is a serious thing, this is a serious crisis. The water is off all day and off all evening. I understand they are trying to fill the tank but what time are they going to leave the water on in the comfortable hours when people really need it, such as the evening hours."

Businessowners on the island are calling on officials to leave the tank on during peak visitor season as this "crisis" is affecting their livelihoods. They also suggested leaving the water on in the day and turning it off at night once residents and guests have settled in.

"That tank is filling every day but it [water level] doesn't look like it is moving," said one business owner, "If it takes over a month to fill that tank, let's leave it until later".

Another resident added, "I just came off of the dock soaking wet, fishy and trying to catch a shower but I can't even jump in my shower. This is ridiculous man!"

The WSC Chairman said he has heard residents' cries ro resolve the ongoing water supply issue. He said he will return to the cay in two or three weeks.

"I'm asking everyone to bear with us and we are going to get your problem sorted out. We're working on it, we're getting things sorted out, we're progressing and we're going to get it done," said Petty.