Thursday, 17 February 2011 - Courtesy Keen i Media Ltd and Bahama islands info.com
When hurricanes Frances and Jeanne ripped through Grand Bahama several years ago, they created a dismal scene where thousands of residents were left scrounging for food and water in their aftermath.
The Grand Bahama Emergency Water Relief Foundation has taken a proactive approach to help islanders become better prepared, with the construction of a reverse osmosis water plant on the island.
The foundation raised nearly $220,000 for the plant’s construction, including a $120,000 donation by the T.K. Foundation.
It is comprised of members from the Rotary Club of East Nassau, the Grand Bahama District and California (Santa Monica and Beverly Hills), some of whom were not afraid to put their hands to the plough for the plant’s construction.
In fact, ten Rotarians from the Rotary Club of Santa Monica were in Freeport this week painting walls, planting trees and putting up signs at the site. They joined the project at the prompting of their fellow club member, Myles Prichard -- who is a Bahamian.
The plant was commissioned on Wednesday on Grand Bahamian Way on property donated by the Grand Bahama Port Authority and will be able to produce up to 6,200 gallons per day.
Rotary’s Deputy Assistant Governor for The Bahamas, Lindsey Cancino, explained that the water plant will commence the storage of water once a storm is tracked in the Grand Bahama area. The plant, which has its own generator, will be managed by Grand Bahama Utility Company.
Said Cancino: “We’re going to have to have an emergency on its way like a hurricane and then we would just come and turn the plant on. It produces 6,200 gallons per day. We have a holding tank that can store that water and it would be distributed through a variety of means, but a lot of them mobile.
“So, we would fill tanks and then put them on to trucks and take them out to wherever we need to get them out to Grand Bahama. Even beyond that, we could help people in Abaco if that became necessary and water was an issue.”
Michael Stafford, a local Rotarian who helped to galvanize local, national and international Rotarians to bring this project to life, shared how the past storms affected Grand Bahama.
“It was terrible. We lost around 1,100 power poles here. So therefore we had no power and some neighbourhoods had no power for six weeks. Also because of the storm surge and the floods in certain areas, we had our ground water supply contaminated with salt water,” he said.
“Economically, we were hit very hard and we lost a major employer with the closure of the Bahamas Princess [Royal Oasis] and if you just look around the island, you can see trees that are snapped in half and roofs that are still not repaired. So there was a tremendous economic impact with the hurricanes and there always is, so Rotary is there to try and help people with their basic necessities.”
Stafford
said that the new plant draws its water from a salt water well, ensuring a
constant supply of water in almost any situation. The plant also runs off of
commercial power and has its own standby generator which can keep the facility
operating even after the loss of commercial power.
Jillian Alexander, Co-chair of Rotary District 5280 WCS and co-chair for the Bahamas Clean Water Project for District 52ED in Los Angeles said that in 2006 Rotary International took on “clean water” as a major initiative for the group.
However, she said it was the story of Grand Bahama’s devastation that encouraged Rotarians to pour themselves into this project.
“That was something that we really needed to understand. The initial concept from Los Angeles was that people from Grand Bahama should be able to deal with such an issue on their island. We didn’t know that you were flying in emergency water and that was another thing that touched all of the hearts of the Rotarians who participated in raising the funds.”
She said there were eight clubs in the Los Angeles Region who participated in fund raising efforts, raising $22,000.
NEMA
Co-ordinator and administrator in the Office of the Prime Minister Don Cornish
commended Rotary for setting the tone for other organisations to forge such
partnerships.
“Having a reliable supply like this would be a definite asset. Also, there were other disasters in the past in communities like Grand Cay where they didn’t have water supply because their water system wasn’t functioning. That’s a nice little community and we had to go ask for donations to assist and rely on our resources that we had on hand. So I think this partnership is a very positive thing for us and really demonstrates the importance of partnerships between the community and the government,” he said.
President of Waugh Construction, Sonny Waugh, who supervised the plant’s construction, became very passionate as he spoke about the nearly 40 businesses on Grand Bahama who donated their services.
“We bulldozed the land and as it was in the flood zone, we brought in a pile of fill from Bahama Rock. If you were to see our donors list on the plaque afterwards, you will see how many firms in the community donated to this and how many hours I must have spent on the telephone, on my knees begging, begging. They really came through for us,” he said.
This is one of dozens of humanitarian efforts initiated by Rotary International added Cancino, who reported that there are approximately 60 current grants going into Haiti to help those affected by the deadly 2010 earthquake. Rotary is also planning to build an artificial limb hospital in Haiti to help change the lives of some 4,000 amputees in Port-au-Prince.
As for the role his fellow Rotarians from abroad have played in helping to bring relief in a proactive way, Cancino said: “It is an incredible feeling of camaraderie and a common purpose that all Rotarians share. I am not really surprised that they are involved because Rotarians are incredibly generous people in my experience and we couldn’t be happier that they are here with us and were willing to do this with us. All around it was a terrific experience.”
