From the early 1600's, the only sources of fresh water supply in New Providence were the rainwater collected from the roofs of houses stored in tanks and the use of open wells. These served the needs of the people for several generations, but were not always found satisfactory in the years of drought and great hardships prevailed.

In March 1927, the Bahamas Government appointed an engineer for the design and execution of the City of Nassau Water Supply Scheme. By the end of 1927, the inhabitants of the Island of New Providence were drawing water from the Blue Hill Waterworks.

The way was clear to provide the City with its water supply and sewerage systems. This supply was satisfactory for a few years. Then a combination of extreme drought and over pumping diminished the fresh-water body and the well field became progressively more saline until it was abandoned in 1937. The area has remained saline and to date, some areas have not fully recovered. In 1938, the Prospect Waterworks became the primary source of supply when the Blue Hills supply was abandoned. The Prospect area is located on a broad ridge about 3 miles west of the City. Approximately 180-200 acres were developed - mainly with deep-well windmills (later replaced with electric drive). Storage facilities for 240,000 Imperial gallons were provided and a pumping main was laid connecting the Prospect Works with the Fort Fincastle tanks.

Five years later, the influx of World War II military (Air Force) personnel, brought about increased demands on the supply, so that additional water sources had to be located. In 1943, the Perpalls Waterworks (212 acres) was developed. Perpalls, located about 1.50 miles east of the Prospect area, lies at the base of a ridge on a rather flat ground. A combination of trenches and boreholes were developed in Perpalls and both windmill and electrically driven pumps were used. Water from Perpalls was pumped directly into the City’s distribution system. Presently, the water from this area is pumped to Prospect Station.

               In 1956, when additional water was needed, Southwest Waterworks was started. This area is located directly south of Windsor Field and is about 12 miles from Nassau. The initial development included 52 windmills on six-well spiders, a 200,000-gallon concrete storage tank and a pump house. Water from this development, which was rated at 150,000 gallons per day, was pumped about 9 miles to Blue Hills low-level tanks via a delivery main. In 1957, further steps were taken to extend the Southwest Waterworks facilities. A total of 80 bore holes equipped with "Flamingo" type compressed air pumps with a rated capacity of 7-1,000 gallons per day were installed. With further system growth and failure of the initial evaporation plant at Clifton Pier in 1960 - 61, a third extension was developed in the Southwest in 1961. This consisted of 80 eight well spiders, each equipped with electrically-driven screw pumps. Rated output of this extension was 430,000 gallons per day and delivered to Southwest Station. In 1963, a fourth addition to Southwest Waterworks, the Eastern Extension, was started due to rising demand and the unreliability of the distillation plant on the east side of Coral Harbor Road. This area consisted of 30 twin trenches and 50 eight well spiders. Each was equipped with an electrically operated centrifugal pump, which delivered approximately 300,000 gallons per day of water to the Southwest Pump Station.

            In addition to the extensions at Southwest Waterworks in 1963, another development by a private contractor on government land located just west of Carmichael Road was started. This 210 acres area, known as Cousins, was fully developed in 1964 with units of eight wells each rated at 56,000 gallons per day. In 1968, Southwest One and Southwest Two were developed using boreholes and trenches covering approximately 400 and 300 acres respectively. Southwest One was an expansion of the Southwest field, and Southwest Two was an expansion of the Cousins area.

            In addition to withdrawal areas owned by the Bahamas Water and Sewerage Corporation (WSC), there are two major privately owned supplies from which the WSC purchased bulk- supplemental supplies. These were the 2,000 acre trench system of The New Providence Development Company constructed in 1967 and the 250 acre borehole system developed in 1963 at Coral Harbour. Initially, the New Providence Development Co. was under a 13-year agreement with Government to supply water from their lands in the west of the Island to the storage tanks at the Windsor Pumping Station. To date, bulk- water is still purchased from the New Providence Development Company, although not on a consistent basis.

In addition to groundwater, other sources of potable water have been used with varying degrees of success. A distillation plant was constructed during 1958-1959 at Clifton Pier to produce 1 million gallons of water per day. The works, included under a loan agreement, covered the laying of 21 miles of pipes along Adelaide / Carmichael Road, installation of three 5 million gallons storage tanks at Blue Hills Ridge and construction of a pumping station and a treatment plant. The first distilled water was available in 1960.

The original distilling equipment installed during 1958, failed to produce the contracted amount of water. It was, therefore, replaced by a new type of flash evaporator (MSF.- Multi-stage flash evaporation desalination plant), which commenced erratic operation in July, 1962 at the Clifton Pier Power Station. Considerable difficulties were again experienced and the specified output of 1.2 million gallons per day was never achieved for more than a few days at a time. During 1968, Government carried out extensive remedial work to the MSF desalination plant. The cost of operation was very high due to the excessive maintenance and repair needs. During 1971, corrosion and operational problems became so great that the plant was forced to close down.

Tenders for a new 2-million gallons per day desalination plant to be sited at Blue Hills were received in late 1968. The work on the new two million gallon per day desalination plant constructed in conjunction with the Blue Hills Power Station adjacent to the Blue Hills Waterworks was completed in 1971. This plant was commissioned in 1972 and showed some improvement over the former MSF plants. However, it later failed to attain its expected yields and by 1978 the Blue Hills MSF plant was abandoned.

Early in 1972, arrangements were made with the Bahamas Water Supply Development Company to supply Government with water from their private installation at Coral Harbor. This supply averaged 175,000 gallons per day, and helped to bridge the difficult period before Blue hills Desalination Plant was commissioned.

In 1976, a private entrepreneur sold desalinated water all over the world in bulk supply (approximately 0.5 million gallons per day) to the Water Corporation. This water was produced from a reverse osmosis plant located near Windsor field. Lake Killarney was used as the source of a saline water supply for the plant. High operational costs forced a decision to abandon the plant in 1980.

            The most novel venture of the Water & Sewerage Corporation, in its efforts to combat the crisis of supply shortage on New Providence, has been to import ground water from northern Andros.           

            Importation which began in 1977 has been by barging water from Morgan's Bluff on Andros Island to Arawak Cay on New Providence. Groundwater was abstracted from twelve long cruciform trenches, each with a central pumping station. Water is then collected in two 3 million gallon low level earth embankment reservoirs from which it is pumped to a dock at Morgan's Bluff and into a chartered barge.

During the 1980's, well field construction activity took place during the rehabilitative works of Windsor well field, Eastern Extension of Southwest Waterworks, Flamingo, Blue Hills and Perpalls well fields. This involved extensive trench cutting, lying of conduits, pumps, valves and pipe replacements at most of these well fields. During the late 1980's and early 1990's, the well fields at North Andros were expanded and shipping fleet increased to help meet the increasing water demands of New Providence.

In December 1997, a Seawater Reverse Osmosis Plant was commissioned to produce 2 Million Imperial Gallons per Day.  The plant is owned and operated by the Water Fields Company Ltd.  The water is blended with water from New Providence well fields, to produce higher quality water.

Presently in Singapore, the NEWater production came about to the public using recycled water. On National Day 2003, the government gave out NEWater to the audience as refreshment.

 

Reference:

http://www.yahoo.com

http://www.dogpile.com

http://www.ixquick.com

http://www.pub.gov.sg/NEWater  

http://www.google.com

 

Fonts and Titles

http://www.flamingtext.com  

http://www.3dtextmaker.com