Groundwater serves as the primary source of drinking water on many islands, particularly on predominantly limestone carbonate islands where surface waters are lacking ( White and Falkland, 2010). Small island water supplies typically originate from groundwater, surface water where available, desalination of ocean water, or rainwater harvesting in limited amounts ( Holding and Allen, 2016). Introduction: Description of the nature of the problem being addressed and rationale for the proposed innovationįresh water sources on small island nations are challenged by limited availability, climate variations, sea level rise, extreme events associated with climate change, and population growth ( White and Falkland, 2010 Holding and Allen, 2016 Osorio et al., 2016 Post et al., 2018 Spellman et al., 2021). This solution may be promising for other small islands where development is often challenged by water availability and sustainable energy provision. Current efforts to investigate drinking water provision through OTEC are promising, particularly for the potential co-generation of energy and to promote sustainable development. This article reveals that historic interventions to source drinking water for New Providence Island have proven to be unsustainable and ultimately have threatened the freshwater availability. The Bahamas is also investigating alternative mechanisms for providing clean drinking water to the country, with Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) under consideration to co-generate clean energy in addition to drinking water. Present concerns have grown due to its contributions to greenhouse gas emissions.
In addition to an aggressive Non-Revenue-Water (NRW) Program, desalination of ocean water via diesel-operated reverse osmosis plants has served as the primary source of potable water for the island. Fresh water was barged in from the larger Andros Island for ~40 years, which ultimately became insufficient to meet demand on New Providence. Historic groundwater sources have been over-extracted to severe levels of salinization, and some groundwater aquifers have not recovered after more than 8 years later. New Providence has a long history of hydrologic interventions to supply domestic and industrial water. The island of New Providence in The Bahamas is home to the capital city of Nassau and almost three-quarters of the country's population. Typically, all islands are characterized by their limited supply of freshwater, and their governments commonly rely on large-scale interventions to provide residents with potable water. Small island nations make up more than one-quarter of the countries on earth, yet information on the limitations of the hydrologic cycle in small islands and strategies to address freshwater availability are lacking. 3UNESCO Bahamas National Commission for UNESCO-IHP, Nassau, Bahamas.2Geosciences Department, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH, United States.1Small Island Sustainability Programme, University of The Bahamas, Nassau, Bahamas.
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