Regional forum told of high cost of importing fossil fuels

NASSAU, Bahamas—The Bahamas has told a two-day regional forum examining the interlinked risks of water and energy security that it costs billions of dollars to import all fossil fuels into the country.  “The Bahamas has few conventional energy resources and all fossil fuels are imported to the nation at a cost in excess of one billion US dollars annually or put another way, more than US$3,000 per capita,” Deputy Prime Minister Phillip Davis told the forum.

He told the 8th Annual High Level Session (HLS) Ministerial Forum on Water that as the minister responsible for both water and electricity, he is required to understand the challenges faced by both sectors. “As a consumer of both, I have sometimes been ‘uncomfortably’ aware of the need for improvement, coordination and reform in each sector,” said Davis, who is also the Minister of Works and Urban Development.

He said while energy does not only cover electricity, but areas such as transportation, the “proverbial pain” consumers feel at the gas station pumps is often more “bearable” than that which is felt at home when water and electrical services are less than satisfactory, coupled with what consumers feel in their pockets at the end of the month.  

He said water resources too, were very limited and exist in sustainable quantities in only a few of the larger islands where the populations are typically small and widely distributed. “In the past, over 50 per cent of the water supplied to this island, New Providence, on which our capitol Nassau is located, came from Andros, our largest island, by way of motorised barges. More and more, seawater desalination is being used because of its quality, reliability, and the abundance of the source water.

CANA