Despite promising that power would be fully restored to all of Abaco by May, some parts of the island are still without electricity nearly eight months after the island was devastated by Hurricane Dorian.
Minister of Public Works Desmond Bannister suggested yesterday that Bahamas Power and Light (BPL) is challenged with a shortage of trained staff to carry out necessary restorations on the island.
He was also unable to give a timeline for the full restoration of the island.
“I don’t think we ever had a timeline,” he said.
“This is the worst hurricane that’s ever hit our country. When you talk about timelines, you talk about something like electricity, it’s impossible to have a timeline.
“The Ministry of Works, for example, has to send inspectors down there to inspect houses before you could turn power on in those houses.
“You can’t have a timeline when people have to get insurance money. They have to rebuild or fix their houses and once their houses are renovated or rebuilt then they have to be inspected before BPL can connect the house.
“So, this is a long-term project. Anyone who is looking for a timeline hasn’t seen Abaco and doesn’t understand what people in Abaco had to endure.”
Bannister’s comments directly contradict statements made by John Michael Clarke, chairman of the Disaster Reconstruction Authority.
During the launch of the government’s Small Home Repair Programme on Grand Bahama on February 10, 2020, Clarke said electricity would be fully restored on Abaco by May.
“Utility restoration continues in the impacted zones,” Clarke said.
“According to the latest BPL timeline, power should be fully restored on the island of Abaco and, particularly, within the Marsh Harbour district by May of this year.
“We are continuing discussions to make sure that the water utilities, both in Abaco and in Grand Bahama, are fully restored.”
Dorian tore through Abaco and its cays last September, damaging electricity poles, buildings and other infrastructure in the process.
The Category 5 storm impacted nearly 30,000 people in the northern Bahamas.
The minister noted that electricity has been restored to much of Abaco and some of the cays.
“…Some of those cays are different because on those cays they [don’t] want underground utilities,” he said.
“That is the case, with underground utilities, you can expect the fact of two or three times the cost of normal utilities.”
Bannister said BPL has put solar lighting in Marsh Harbour “so that the city itself…can have lighting during the night”.
He suggested that BPL is challenged with a shortage of staff trained to carry out necessary restorations on the island.
Bannister said linemen who are sent to Abaco need to have a minimum of eight years’ experience.
“You have a limited number who were already in Abaco and a limited number in New Providence,” the minister said.
“Those who are working now had to be rotated in and out.”
Held up
Amos Weatherford, a Sweetings Village resident, told The Nassau Guardian yesterday, “We’re held up by a lack of electricity.”
He described reconstruction efforts as going at “a snail’s pace”, noting that “no one’s happy with how slow it’s going”.
Weatherford said Abaco is not prepared for hurricane season, which starts in about a month.
Ken Hutton, president of the Abaco Chamber of Commerce, said reconstruction efforts on the island have slowed down as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said this was the result of non-governmental organization (NGO) workers having to return home.
“To say it’s a concern is putting it very, very lightly,” Hutton said.
“We’re very concerned because even at this point we have no hurricane shelter in Abaco, at least not Central Abaco. We still have a lot debris on the ground. It’s very concerning.”
Katherine Forbes-Smith, managing director of the Disaster Reconstruction Authority, said some of the organizations still have skeleton crews on Abaco.
“As soon as it’s possible for them to come back to the island, they want to come back to the island to do work,” she told The Guardian.
Bannister said BPL plans to supplement the staff, who would’ve left, with “another group of professionals”.
He said that is anticipated sometime in May.
The post Marsh Harbour still without power appeared first on The Nassau Guardian.
source https://thenassauguardian.com/2020/04/29/marsh-harbour-still-without-power/
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