Bahamas News
Residents in East Grand Bahama benefit from solar streetlights, thanks to the DRA
#TheBahamas, May 11, 2021 – Thanks to the Disaster Reconstruction Authority (DRA) and Food for the Poor, residents of East Grand Bahama have street lighting as crews of the Grand Bahama Power Company continue to work towards full restoration of electricity to those communities.
Since devastation by Hurricane Dorian in 2019, which ravaged East Grand Bahama, residents have had to endure living without electricity for months. Because the damage was so extensive in East Grand Bahama, the Power Company attended to getting other communities up and running first.
In the meantime, the Ministry of Disaster Preparedness, Management and Reconstruction, responsible for the DRA, joined forces with Food for the Poor and the Ministry of Grand Bahama, to help provide much-needed street lighting within the East Grand Bahama communities.
Minister of State for Disaster Preparedness, Management and Reconstruction the Hon. Pakesia Parker-Edgecombe, along with Minister of State for Finance and for Grand Bahama, Senator the Hon. Kwasi Thompson and Permanent Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister (GB), Mr. Harcourt Brown, toured portions of East Grand Bahama on Saturday, May 8, 2021, to view the work that has already been done on the project.
Minister Parker-Edgecombe said: “This is really the result of partnerships, not only on a local level, but on an international level — the Ministry of Grand Bahama, the DRA and the company responsible for what’s going on here in the East communities, as well as those NGOs that came in and assisted us in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian.
“Food for the Poor has been instrumental in donating these solar lights and we are thankful for them coming in and assisting us in repairing and rebuilding our communities.”
Minister Parker-Edgecombe said efforts by the government and working along with NGOs and other private partners is all about sustainability, moving forward and building back better.
“We look forward to these lights benefiting these communities in a significant way,” she added. “Moving forward, this is what we are going to be bringing to the table to ensure that our communities are safer. We are very appreciative of all of the hands that went into making this project a success.”
The project, which costs over $200,000, is something that has been well-received by the residents in each community.
The solar streetlights have been installed throughout the Eastern District – inclusive of Sweeting’s Cay, McClean’s Town, Pelican Point, High Rock, Free Town and Water Cay.
Minister of State for Finance and for Grand Bahama, Senator Kwasi Thompson pointed out that the solar light project has been a way to take advantage of an opportunity that was created by a crisis. He noted that the devastation of communities in East Grand Bahama has become known not only locally, but on an international scale.
“This really is a model of what really can be achieved in most or many of our Family Islands, he said. “So, we want to congratulate the DRA and the Minister responsible for making this project a reality. This is just one of a number of renewable energy projects that’s going to come to East Grand Bahama.”
One of those major projects, according to Minister Thompson, will be a micro grid project that will help to make East Grand Bahama resilient in the face of future storms. “We’re building it back, but we’re building it back better,” said Minister Thompson.
The solar lights are an all-in-one assembly, consisting of the light pole, the solar panel, battery and light fixture. The solar panel collects power from the sun during the day, and at nightfall the streetlights come on automatically.
Release: BIS
By Andrew Coakley
PHOTO CAPTION
CHECKING OUT PROGRESS OF PROJECT – Minister of State for Finance and for Grand Bahama, Senator the Hon. Kwasi Thompson (center), along with Minister of State for Disaster Preparedness, Management and Reconstruction, the Hon. Pakesia Parker-Edgecombe and Permanent Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister (GB), Mr. Harcourt Brown (second from right) were in East Grand Bahama on Saturday, May 8, 2021 to check out progress being made on the East Grand Bahama Solar Lights Project, which provides street lighting for all of the communities of East Grand Bahama, which were severely damaged by Hurricane Dorian in 2019. Joining the team were Mr. Derek King, Electrical Engineer with Grand Bahama Procurement Construction Company Limited (right) and Mr. Hutchison, project manager (left).
(BIS Photo/Andrew Miller)
PM: Project delivers on promise and invests in youth, sports and national development
GRAND BAHAMA, The Bahamas — Calling it the fulfillment of a major commitment to the island, Prime Minister Philip Davis led the official groundbreaking for the Grand Bahama Aquatic Centre, a facility the government says will transform sports development and create new opportunities for young athletes.
Speaking at the Grand Bahama Sports Complex on February 12, the Prime Minister said the project represents more than bricks and mortar
— it is an investment in people, national pride and long-term economic activity. The planned complex will feature a modern 50-metre competition pool, designed to meet international standards for training and regional and global swim meets. Davis said the facility will give Bahamian swimmers a home capable of producing world-class performance while also providing a space for community recreation, learn-to-swim programmes and water safety training.
He noted that Grand Bahama has long produced outstanding athletes despite limited infrastructure and said the new centre is intended to correct that imbalance, positioning the island as a hub for aquatic sports and sports tourism.
The Prime Minister also linked the development to the broader national recovery and revitalisation of Grand Bahama, describing the project as part of a strategy to expand opportunities for young people, create jobs during construction and stimulate activity for small businesses once operational.
The Aquatic Centre, he said, stands as proof that promises made to Grand Bahama are being delivered.
The project is expected to support athlete development, attract competitions, and provide a safe, modern environment for residents to access swimming and water-based programmes for generations to come.
Angle by Deandrea Hamilton. Built with ChatGPT (AI). Magnetic Media — CAPTURING LIFE.
The Bahamas, February 15, 2026 – For the better part of three years, Bahamians have been told that major Afreximbank financing would help transform access to capital, rebuild infrastructure and unlock economic growth across the islands. The headline figures are large. The signing ceremonies are high profile. The language is ambitious. What remains far harder to see is the measurable impact in the daily lives of the people those announcements are meant to serve.
The Government’s push to secure up to $100 million from Afreximbank for roughly 200 miles of Family Island roads dates back to 2025. In
its February 11 disclosure, the bank outlined a receivables-discounting facility — a structure that allows a contractor to be paid early once work is completed, certified and invoiced, with the Government settling the bill later. It is not cash placed into the economy upfront. It does not, by itself, build a single mile of road. Every dollar depends on work first being delivered and approved.
The wider framework has been described as support for “climate-resilient and trade-enhancing infrastructure,” a phrase that, in practical terms, should mean projects that lower the cost of doing business, move people and goods faster, and keep the economy functioning. But for communities, that promise becomes real only when the projects are named, the standards are defined and a clear timeline is given for when work will begin — and when it will be finished.
Bahamians have seen this moment before.
In 2023, a $30 million Afreximbank facility for the Bahamas Development Bank was hailed as a breakthrough that would expand access to financing for local enterprise. It worked in one immediate and measurable way: it encouraged businesses to apply. Established, revenue-generating Bahamian companies responded to the call, prepared plans, and entered a process they believed had been capitalised to support growth. The unanswered question is how much of that capital has reached the private sector in a form that allowed those businesses to expand, hire and generate new economic activity.
Because development is not measured in the size of announcements.
It is measured in loans disbursed, projects completed and businesses expanded.
The pattern is becoming difficult to ignore. In June 2024, when Afreximbank held its inaugural Caribbean Annual Meetings in Nassau,
Grand Bahama was presented as the future home of an Afro-Caribbean marketplace said to carry tens of millions of dollars in investment. What was confirmed at that stage was a $1.86 million project-preparation facility — funding for studies and planning to make the development bankable, not construction financing. The larger build-out remains dependent on additional approvals, land acquisition and further capital.
This distinction — between financing announced and financing that produces visible, measurable outcomes — is now at the centre of the national conversation.
Because while the numbers grow larger on paper, entrepreneurs still describe access to capital as out of reach, and communities across the Family Islands are still waiting to see where the work will start.
And in an economy where stalled growth translates into lost opportunity, rising frustration and real social consequences, the gap between promise and delivery is no longer a communications issue.
It is an inability to convert announcements into outcomes.
Angle by Deandrea Hamilton. Built with ChatGPT (AI). Magnetic Media — CAPTURING LIFE.
A hardline strategy that reduced murders, gunfire, and collateral deaths
The Bahamas, February 8, 2026 – What happens when police stop routinely granting bail to high-risk suspects and aggressively execute outstanding warrants? In The Bahamas, the answer in 2025 was fewer murders, fewer gunshots, and safer communities.
The Royal Bahamas Police Force arrested 4,337 individuals on outstanding warrants last year, ensuring suspects were brought directly before the courts instead of being released back onto the streets. At the same time, police significantly curtailed the use of police bail for high-risk and repeat offenders, particularly those already entangled in violent disputes.
Police Commissioner Shanta Knowles said the shift was informed by hard lessons from previous years. Intelligence reviews showed that
many homicide victims were not random targets, but men already wanted by law enforcement and — critically — by other criminals. When released on bail, those individuals often became targets themselves, triggering retaliatory shootings that spilled into neighbourhoods, roadways and public spaces.
By keeping high-risk suspects in custody pending court appearances, police say they disrupted that cycle — removing both potential offenders and potential victims from the streets.
The impact was stark. Murders declined by 31 percent in 2025, falling from 120 in 2024 to 83, the largest percentage decrease in homicides since national tracking began in 1963 and the lowest murder count in nearly two decades.
Police leaders say the strategy also reduced the collateral damage that had increasingly alarmed communities. Innocent residents had been caught in “sprays of gunfire” as targeted attacks unfolded in residential areas, at traffic stops, and in public settings.
Gun-violence indicators reflected the change. Gunshot reports fell by 35 percent, while incidents detected by ShotSpotter technology declined by 29 percent, confirming that fewer shots were being fired across the country.
“Gunshots ringing out and cutting through our peaceful paradise were down remarkably,” Commissioner Knowles said, attributing the improvement to decisive enforcement, tighter bail practices, and sustained pressure on offenders.
Police also intensified enforcement against breach of bail conditions, charging and detaining more suspects than in any previous reporting period. Officers say the approach removed the opportunity for repeat offending while matters were before the courts.
Police leadership said the results go beyond statistics. By limiting bail for high-risk suspects and executing warrants at scale, the strategy saved lives, protected bystanders, and restored confidence in public safety.
In 2025, fewer people were hunted, fewer bullets were fired, and fewer families were left grieving — a shift police say was no accident, but the result of deliberate, hardline choices.
Angle by Deandrea Hamilton. Built with ChatGPT (AI). Magnetic Media — CAPTURING LIFE.
