Bahamas News
A Step Towards a National Meteorological System
#TurksandCaicos, December 11, 2021 – On Monday, December 6th 2021, Hon. Arlington Musgrove, Minister of Immigration and Border Services, with responsibility for the Department of Disaster Management and Emergencies (DDME), and the Turks and Caicos Islands Airports Authority (TCIAA) led a delegation to the Bahamas on a series of meetings and facility visits with the aim of establishing the needs and benefits of investing in a National Meteorological and Hydrological Services.
Members of the TCI delegation that accompanied Hon. Musgrove were Dr. Holly Hamilton – Director of Meteorology at the TCIAA, Mr. Mark Wilkinson – Radio Communications and Telecommunications Manager at DDME and Ms. Karen Higgs – Personal Assistant at the Ministry of Immigration and Border Services.
The TCI delegation met with Hon. Myles LaRoda, Minister of Disaster Preparedness, Management and Reconstruction, and Hon. Mario Bowleg, Minister of Youth, Sports & Culture, acting on behalf of the Minister of Transport and Housing who has responsibility for the Department of Meteorology. This meeting focused on the development and delivery of MET services, country collaborations, resource mobilization, training opportunities and knowledge exchange that will play a key role in Disaster Risk Management and contribute significantly to Disaster Risk Reduction
During this visit, the TCI Delegation also had the opportunity to meet with Mr. Trevor Basden and Mr. Jeffery Simmons, Director and Deputy Director respectively, of the Department of Meteorology. The delegation toured the Bahamas Forecast Office and the Doppler Weather Radar Facility in New Providence. The Met Office team and a representative of the manufacturer of the weather radar system demonstrated the operations and functionalities of the Weather Radar and the Met Office.
The majority of disasters are linked to high-impact weather and hydrological events as well as climate extremes – including rapid-onset hazards such as tropical cyclones and slow-onset hazards such as droughts. A National MET Office will provide critical data and services such as localized impact-based forecasting and risk information (including authoritative warnings) in such a way that the appropriate stakeholders and decision-makers, and the general public can take actions to protect lives, reduce economic losses and disaster risks, and ultimately increase community resilience through structural and non-structural measures – preventive, responsive and adaptive.
Dr. Holly Hamilton, the Director of Meteorology for the TCIAA has recently completed her two (2) month attachment at the Bahamas Department of Meteorology as part of her operational training and the exchange and partnership programs between the two nations. Commenting on her attachment, Dr. Hamilton said, “It was a great opportunity to be attached to the Bahamas Department of Meteorology. I thoroughly enjoyed my time working alongside the forecasters and observers at the Forecast Office, as well as spending some time shadowing the Acting Director, Mr. Jeffrey Simmons. The Bahamas and Turks and Caicos have a longstanding working relationship when it comes to meteorology and this opportunity was very beneficial to the TCI and the TCIAA by further strengthening that connection. Weather impacts our lives on a daily basis and with Climate Change, the need to observe, analyze and understand our weather and climate and how it is changing is now even more important to the TCI”.
The TCI Delegation also had the opportunity to visit the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) of the Bahamas, during this visit the team discussed a number of critical areas such as Training opportunities, lessons learnt from preparedness and response activities of the various hazards and the multi-hazard approach of both countries.
Mr. Mark Wilkinson, representing the DDME, said, “the visit to National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), provided an overview of the pivotal role the MET office plays in its national DRR governance and demonstrated both routine service delivery and more DRR-specific activities across various timescales. NEMA and DDME share a very close relationship, as national disaster offices that operate within the same Sub Regional Focal Point of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) Regional Response System. This meeting has allowed the further strengthening of our partnership in Disaster Preparedness and Response, which are beneficial pillars to both nations.”
Hon. Arlington Musgrove, commenting on the visit said, “To deal with fundamental issues such as population safety and security, water and food security, economic growth and sustainable development, enhancing resilience to disasters and climate change, we have to develop and implement effective policies and strategies that take into consideration the challenges of climate variability and change and promote fundamental tenets of societal and environmental governance. Understanding the partnership and technical operation of these agencies are critical to strengthening the technical and functional capacities in the Ministry and the Turk and Caicos Islands.
The Bahamas Forecast Office provides the TCI/DDME with daily weather updates and the TCIAA with weather information for aviation purposes. As we continue to build our capacities in various sectors, visiting the Bahamas Forecast Office, the weather radar site and the National Emergency Management Agency provided a closer look at the support and partnership that we share on a daily basis, along with the exchange of information and future planning of the development of these critical entities such as DDME & TCIAA Meteorological Office”.
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.
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