During the 2025 Eleuthera Business Outlook forum, held in April at the Eleuthera Chamber of Commerce’s Business Hub in Rock Sound, one of the breakout panel presentations during the day’s sessions focused on the island’s infrastructure, with panelists representing road works, electricity, and the water supply.
Presentations on fixing and delivering sustainable infrastructure, brought by Vibert Williams COO of Bahamas Striping Group of Companies (BSGC), Toni Seymour CEO at Bahamas Power and Light Company Limited (BPL), and Montgomery Miller senior manager strategic coordination with the Water and Sewerage Corporation (WSC), had full audience attention – in light of the ongoing challenges and work to resolve these issues throughout Eleuthera.
Williams began, giving an overview of the status of the roadworks ongoing across the island, saying, “We are currently engaged in a project to improve 163 miles of highway and settlement roads, in south and central Eleuthera. In this stage of our contract 163 miles – 82 highway miles and 81 settlement miles… Every government road in every settlement will be fixed… So far we’ve done 26.2 miles of work. We started in Deep Creek, we’ve done some in Wemyss Bight, Governor’s Harbour, Savannah Sound, Green Castle, and in Palmetto Point.
He continued, “It would appear that we have moved around and we have because at times you encounter live situations on the ground. So, for example, in Waterford, we dug up some roads and we left them open for a while. That was not intentional, it’s just that the water main lines were so low below the surface that even passing the roller over would break them. So, we had to stop for a time and allow WSC to remove and reposition and we’ve now closed. So, we apologize for the inconvenience that you’ve had. But what we did was wherever we encountered an issue, we didn’t let it stop or slow the process down. We pivoted and we went to another community. And so in a matter of months we’ve already put down 26.2 miles of asphalt.”
The road project, said Mr. Williams, includes partnering with Water and Sewerage. “We’re doing this in collaboration with WSC in south and central Eleuthera and we are going to lay 64 miles of pipe work. We are just on the cusp of signing a 2.5 million dollar agreement with a subcontractor to carry works forward in this regard.”
Talking about quality of the road works ongoing currently, he informed, “We are also doing climate resilient designs. Where there were not elevated roads, we are bringing them up to the required standard, which is about five feet above sea level. We’re also adding proper slopes and gradients to run the water away to reduce flooding. We’re putting in wells, we’re putting in culverts and in some cases even drainage and we are building seawalls in this process.”
A major component, added Williams, of what BSGC will do after the roads are complete is striping and lane marking. “We are using thermoplast striping and we’re also putting reflective studs, we call them cat-eyes, to improve visibility and lane demarcations, traffic signs, guardrails, and sidewalks… We are creating roadways that will meet international standards. This is a four year project. But, as in every project Bahamas Striping group has done, we intend to beat that timeline handsomely and we will on this project as well.”
Describing BSGC’s community project, being done in addition to contracted road works, COO Williams, said, “This is a very exciting project for us. The Preston Albury track.” After grading the track area and laying a mat of asphalt during April, he described next steps, “An international company is coming in with international grade track material and they will build us out a quality track designed with field activities. High jump, long jumps, shot put, javelin. We’re going to add bathrooms and concession stalls and covered seatings and we are going to try to identify because we are sure he or she exists, the next Chris Fireman Brown, the next world famous talent can come right out of this particular project. We’re extremely, extremely excited and proud about this.”
Toni Seymour CEO at BPL, followed. She acknowledged challenges with electricity reliability and outlined ongoing efforts to upgrade lines, poles, and substations, saying, “You’re well aware of the challenges that BPL has faced over the past. So, the issues didn’t happen overnight and they won’t be corrected overnight. We’ve heard your frustrations. We understand the need for reliable electricity and we are working diligently to provide you with that. I know that you’ve seen the teams on the ground. They’ve been working from north to south day and night upgrading – replacing lines, poles, cables, trimming trees.”
She continued, “We are doing upgrades at the power stations. In terms of generation capacity, Eleuthera currently has 43.95 megawatts installed generation current, current peak load at this time of year is 7.2 megawatts. But, we expect that to increase in the summer months to between 16 and 17 megawatts. We have an available capacity of 24 megawatts. Right now we are in our maintenance period. October to May is the maintenance period. So Mr. Mario Smith and his team, they’re working to get all of the units back and restored, completely overhauled before the May deadline, so that we can reliably meet the summer demand for the island.”
Laying out what BPL had accomplished in its grid overhaul to that date, Ms. Seymour detailed, “What we’ve accomplished so far – the Rock Sound feeder upgrade is underway. The Governor’s Harbour substation work is progressing. Vegetation clearing in Hatchet Bay is past the halfway mark. Street light retrofits are nearly complete in multiple settlements. And fault indicators have been installed throughout the island to allow faster identification of issues so the teams know exactly where they need to go if there is an outage to find where the fault actually is.”
Looking ahead to what BPL would be working with partners to put in place for future growth in electricity services in Eleuthera, she added, “I know you’ve heard a lot about the new energy era. So the government of Bahamas issued requests for proposals (RFPs) for micro grids throughout the Bahamas. Eleuthera is no exception. There will be hybrid micro grids installed in the next 18 to 24 months. That consists of solar batteries and clean fuel generation in conjunction with our existing complement of generation of the island. So, that’s something for the residents to look forward to eventually. Once the solar and batteries are operational, that means our generators are burning less fuel and you will see a reduction in your fuel surcharge.
“What it will mean for you and your businesses is improved reliability, and reduced cost. We know that the island and the economy of Eleuthera is booming. So, there’s a lot of investment, a lot of projects that are ongoing. And at BPL, we are committed to supplying you with the level of service that you deserve. If you go to www.bplco.com/eleuthera (dedicated page) – you can get regular updates as to where we are in our Eleuthera Revitalization project. And if you have concerns, you can reach out to our PR department at [email protected] (for info).”
Miller with Water and Sewerage wrapped up the panel presentations, and spoke to what they were doing to mitigate challenges on the island, including the installation of generators at Plants for improved reliability. “We recognize that regardless of the best efforts of BPL, from time to time power is going to go off. And so what we’ve done is invested significantly in putting in standby generations at the water production facilities and beyond that, even at pumping and distribution sites as well. So that in the unusual circumstance the power goes off, the water is intended to stay on.”
Capacity expansion was another focus, said Miller, “We are also making a significant investment in the expansion of water storage capacity because of course, all mechanical equipment is out of service from time to time, either through maintenance, as Ms. Seymour pointed to, and sometimes by failure. And so we need to have adequate storage in our case, which is the buffer that allows us a few days to take our equipment offline so that the water supply is not interrupted and you can still enjoy the level of service that you deserve.”
On the subject of water mains and the island’s pumping infrastructure, Mr. Miller supplied, “Eleuthera actually is the beginning of piped water supply within the archipelago next to New Providence. And so you had piped water first. The downside of that is it’s old. And because it’s old, it’s deteriorated in many cases. And we have a lot of leaks within the system. So we’re seeking to remedy and to rectify that… We also are looking to modernize our pumping infrastructure. A lot of the systems that we have installed originally are inefficient when comes to power usage. We’ve moved on to improve that so the drives that we use are far more energy efficient. We’re reducing our demand and making sure that these things continue to function.”
He continued, “We are making a 30 million dollar investment deal to coordinate with the road paving and to put down water main infrastructure at the same time. We expect that as we progress you will see a much improved service, reliable water supply and at the same time the enjoyment of smooth roads that you can drive on, which will not be disturbed hopefully for a very long time.”
Miller also pointed out efforts to remove obsolete infrastructure, adding, “You’re going to see that we have in several cases, at the Naval Base for instance, and other places, we have old infrastructure, old tanks that have been sitting there, they’re derelict… We’re seeking to demolish old tanks, to get them off the site, to clear the sites and to put things in good, clean, decent order.”
On the Corporation’s aim to deliver sustainability in their service, Mr. Miller commented that there was a renewed focus on once again exploring groundwater resources to complement the current energy demanding reverse osmosis water production on the island.
WSC is also exploring public-private partnerships to address non-revenue water issues, and a rollout of smart meters is being implemented to monitor water usage more accurately and detect leaks early, which helps in reducing water waste, for customers, said Miller. “Over 300 of those meters have been installed here on the island of Eleuthera. This is a nationwide activity…. We will be doing a mass rollout where we will engage private contractors to start changing out throughout all of the communities to those new smart meters.”
