Let down and frustrated in Green Turtle Cay

Dear Editor,

Today makes day 304 without power at my residence on Green Turtle Cay (GTC). My residence has been repaired and is ready for reconnection to the Bahamas Power and Light (BPL) power grid. We were promised, again last week, that BPL would be coming to do hook-ups this week.

What makes our dilemma worse is that the Green Turtle Cay Foundation and Water Mission purchased a generator to provide electricity capable of providing power to the entire cay in December 2019. This, after the government refused the groups’ offer to build a power station on GTC and turn ownership over to BPL.

This past week, BPL moved that generator from the GTC ferry dock to Cooperstown on mainland Abaco. In exchange, a much smaller generator that does not have the capacity to run all of GTC, was sent to the cay. This has now caused load shedding on GTC.

Residents of GTC feel used and abused by our government.

Even when we get power, we still have to run our generators and spend additional monies purchasing gas to operate them. Right now, we are spending as much as $50 a day; that sum, multiplied by 30 days each month, amounts to a hefty monthly electricity bill. That is all money that could be helping to repair our homes or replace a vehicle.

When is it going to stop? Years ago, the Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC) took our generator to run Treasure Cay.

A few years ago, also, home owners purchased a new Jeep for our police. The jeep was also taken to Treasure Cay.

International homeowners are getting so discouraged and Bahamians are daily getting more embarrassed.

Several foreign homeowners were finally scheduled for electrical inspections this week after they signed up online. Many are still overseas in the USA, Canada and elsewhere.

Now, they have learned that they are not on the BPL work order for this week because they still need to come into the BPL office in Marsh Harbour, in person, to give final directions including the color of their houses, before being included on work orders for this week.

Some of the homes excluded from this week’s work order are supposed to house volunteer groups that have returned to the cay to assist in the rebuilding of damaged houses.

One such group is Water Mission. They have been providing potable water to GTC since September 4.

Sometimes, we just feel like Nassau has no understanding of what people are facing here in GTC, trying to do it all on our own.

– Let Down & Frustrated, Green Turtle Cay

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source https://thenassauguardian.com/2020/07/02/let-down-and-frustrated-in-green-turtle-cay/