Despite the challenges of the last year, Miya Bahamas is pleased to announce that they have successfully executed their water efficiency strategies last year. Thankfully they were granted status as an essential service at the onset of the global health pandemic, and with the help of its dedicated employees and the Water & Sewerage Corporation, the company navigated the ever-evolving COVID environment and successfully attain its 2020 commitments, although its annual targets have been affected due to the unprecedented pandemic.
"This year was a difficult one for everyone,” explained Miya Bahamas Project Manager, Mario Tavera. "We experienced some challenges in securing equipment due to border closures and a host of other logistical issues, however, through increased communication with WSC we were able to get the job done.”
For the past 9 years, the Miya team has been instrumental in the reversal of non-revenue water losses across the island of NP. The use of a performance-based Service Level Agreement (SLA) to track their efforts resulted in savings of 69 million dollars and public recognition from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in 2019 and 2020 respectively of their success.
"The COVID 19 pandemic and the resultant financial impact on the government and people of The Bahamas has presented the most significant challenge for WSC in its history," said WSC Executive Chairman, Hon. Adrian Gibson, MP. "It is absolutely essential that our water supply remains uninterrupted during this period to ensure our residents and the visitors to our shores have ready access to proper sanitation at all times,” he continued. "WSC is indeed grateful for the dedication of our staff and our various public-private partners (PPPs) such as our New Providence Non-Revenue Water Contractor, MIYA Bahamas Ltd., who have assisted us in meeting this objective during the pandemic."
As part of its efforts to adhere to newly established COVID protocols, the company utilized cutting edge technologies to help remote work teams monitor and control the water supply, performing proactive leak detection surveys and keep the most efficient pressure management actions on a daily basis. "We were able to come up with a new workflow strategy that provided greater flexibility for our employees; which created a hybrid environment that allowed for socially distant office work and in fieldwork as well,” noted Tavera. "As a result, Miya Bahamas was able to maintain full employment over 2020, and these meant employee benefits were not impacted as well. We are most proud of the commitment shown by our staff,” he continued. "They truly rose to the occasion in the face of the pandemic and have exceeded our expectations.”
Now in 2021, the company enters the final phase of the IDB sponsored contract and is already working toward topping the records broken in previous years. "As COVID-19 restrictions ease, we are looking forward to continuing the success of this project, with WSC,” said Tavera. "Our success here, has helped us lead to other work in the Caribbean, including a US$13 million water works improvement with Jamaica’s National Water Commission (NWC) for a similar Non-Revenue Water (NRW) Reduction Programme.
Miya Bahamas is moving steadily toward future phases despite the COVID-19 threat to the country and hopes that it will continue to support Water & Sewerage Corporation as well as maintain the huge non-revenue water losses for the Bahamian Government. The company is also under new ownership, as Antin Infrastructure Partners acquired Miya from Bridgepoint late last year