WATER AND SEWERAGE CORPORATION

PRESS CONFERENCE

13 MARCH 2007

 

 Ladies and Gentlemen/Members of the Press, you have been invited here this morning to witness the Water and Sewerage Corporation’s historic unveiling of its plans and conceptual design of its first ever tertiary treatment plant.  This plant which will be built on Gladstone Road is a state of the art 4MIGD wastewater treatment.

 

Over the past several months, The Bahamas has witnessed the gradual coming of age of this Corporation, under the leadership of the current Board of Directors and Executives of the Corporation.  This growth, which has been underscored by the astute business like support of the former Minister with responsibility for this Corporation, the Hon. Min. Bradley Roberts, and now equally supported by our new Minister, Sen. Hon. Dr. Marcus Bethel – is projected well into the future.

 

Today the Corporation welcomes Chester Engineers, represented by its CEO and owner, Mr. Robert Agbede and thanks Chester for the role it has played in introducing and developing the plans for this modern facility.  Chester Engineer is the ‘engineer of record’ for the Corporation and also for this plan.  They will play a pivotal role in this growth phase, as the Corporation seeks to introduce a plurality of other modern facilities to The Bahamas, including RO Plants, over the next little while.

 

Today, most importantly, marks yet another milestone in the Corporation’s quest to satisfy the Rt. Hon. Prime Minister Perry Christie’s mandate of introducing quality potable and wastewater services throughout The Bahamas in the shortest possible time-frame, as outlined in the Corporation National Water and Wastewater Strategic Policy Document.

 

Sewerage/wastewater, whilst perennially listed as an area of concern for the Corporation, has never received the attention, from both Corporation and Government, over the past decades.  This area is potentially extremely explosive, and can damage our tourist brand irreparably, if not promptly and properly addressed. 

 

Perhaps a more telling statistic of the state of affairs of wastewater services in New Providence, is the fact that of our current (5) wastewater treatment plant facilities, operated by the Corporation (see below), only one can currently be classified as meeting international ‘utility standards’.

 

Ř     Fox Hill (Eastern area)

Ř     Yellow Elder Garden (Stapledon/Oakes Field)

Ř     Flamingo Gardens (Western area)

Ř     Malcolm Park (Downtown)

Ř     Airport (Operations & Maintenance only)

 

Whilst we are now proactively addressing this traditional problem, and have already introduced plans to expand and enhance these plants, we are cognizant of the need to build new and modern facilities. 

 

As we expressed yesterday, during the public unveiling of our Integrated Water Resource Management Program, the Corporation has a social and fiduciary obligation to ensure the protection of our citizens and residents – and we take that responsibility very seriously.

 

Our announced strategy is to take advantage of every major development in this country, to introduce or modernize new and existing facilities, and the Gladstone Road Plant will be able to facilitate the wastewater needs for  Faith Gardens, Flamingo Gardens, South Westridge, Cable Beach, including the Baha Mar project and any new development in that area.  We are also planning to build state of the art wastewater treatment facilities in the east to service that area and Kerzner International and in the Southwest to facilitate the needs for the new South Ocean Development, the relocated port and the Albany project.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen, these are indeed exciting times and the Corporation, under the operational and capable leadership of Mr. Godfrey Sherman is up to the task and is indeed now considered a major player in today’s constantly evolving environment.

 

 My final comment is that all of the facilities mentioned will be built under Public Private Partnership initiatives and that the public should expect to be called upon to participate to varying degrees.  Water is after all the new frontier and has consistently outperformed oil, in the world financial markets, over the last several years.

 

Thank you and GOD Bless.