by Andrew Allen
By some standards, Abaco has come into its own. Anyone visiting the island for the first time in a few years will be shocked at the level of growth it has recently experienced. The famed traffic light in Marsh Harbour, long a somewhat unnecessary curiosity, now increasingly serves an actual purpose, as the surrounding area develops into a real city centre.
In local government terms, Abaco’s three District II Councils and various town committees are allotted some 20% of the local government budget for the entire country, reflecting the island’s population growth.
New resorts, a harbour full of boaters and new restaurants everywhere you look signify an economy on the move. But if you blink too much you are likely to miss the signs of corresponding public investment growth in Abaco.
To put it mildly, the much-vaunted resilience of an economy driven by repeat visitors and second home owners has not been matched either by public investment in infrastructure or by robust management of local affairs and resources.
The result is a troubling developmental imbalance of which the infamous Mud and Pigeon Pea settlements are only the most visible examples. Smart new office suites and surprisingly large supermarkets and hardware outlets must be accessed on horrifically potholed streets. Tourists are treated to an “International” airport that is built to Family Island standards and must be closed in the event of a little rain (in which instances, incidentally, Bahamasair does not cover the cost of traveling to Treasure Cay for the Nassau flight).
Electrical and telephone services are simply substandard, and all the new projects look certain to create further strain. The general disparity between private investment and public investment looks set to grow even starker with all the developments being slated for Abaco.
In the circumstances, Abaconians are sick of being pointed to by Nassau politicians as a Family Island success story, only to have the fruits of that success siphoned off into the consolidated fund with nothing to show for it in terms of public investment. They seem to know all too well that an economy increasingly like Grand Bahama’s cannot be governed in the manner of Cat Island. For growth to be sustainable, planning and decision-making must exist primarily at the local level.
The mood at Guana Cay, which is at the centre of government’s controversial plans for an ‘anchor’ project for the area, epitomises the sense of inertia and frustration that takes root when locals are denied both real decision-making and the tools to implement it.
The post office and administrative complex constructed on the island by the FNM government have been unmanned for over a year now. Since that time, locals have been obliged to travel to Marsh Harbour even to collect their mail. Local government claims to have found no-one prepared to take the job.
If you look at some of the things the people of the Abaco Cays have organized for themselves, independent of central government (a reliable ferry service, a successful fishing industry, a solid tourist industry based on the rental of their homes) it may seem strange that they would wait years for someone to come and bring the mail. But that is the nature of government in the Family Islands. It comes in, makes the rules, puts up the buildings, takes over the responsibility (sometimes even monopolises it!), then fails to deliver.
Like on the mainland, the things that are best maintained and ordered on Guana Cay are those that private individuals have taken an interest in maintaining. The best paved roads are those leading north of the settlement, all built and maintained at the expense of a popular foreign resident.
Like many Abaconians, the people of Guana Cay possess an admirable spirit of self-help that is unusual among Family Islanders. But without the funds to match, even this is not enough.
Elbow Cay, Man-o-War Cay and Great Guana together comprise one local administrative unit. Between them, these little islands contribute more than their fair share to the treasury. But under our system of local government, they are funded from the consolidated fund, rather than retaining taxes at source.
The entire annual budget allotment for these three bustling cays is around $400,000.00, a miniscule sum when you consider that the dump maintenance contract for Marsh Harbour alone is some $60,000.000
Even without the expected influx of new employees, visitors and business activity, this generally low level of public investment makes for a badly kept, inadequately cared for community.
A few weeks ago in Guana Cay, I spoke to one of the opponents of the Baker’s Bay resort who had a very personal example to relate. During a recent spell of bad weather, her son, together with several other schoolchildren, had taken refuge in an unsecured structure supposedly maintained on the island by BEC. When he went to put his drink down on what appeared to be a suitable object, the child received a blast of electricity that very nearly caused his death.
Today, some feeble tape and a new door deny entry to anyone insufficiently nimble and mischievous to enter through the gaping, uncovered roof!
A more long term concern of locals is that a local government that is so under-funded, so weakened by politics and so second-fiddle to Nassau in terms of decision-making will never be able to keep up with the growth of their communities. In such circumstances, it is hard to see how that growth will continue to be orderly.
So for all their success, many Abaconians suspect that theirs is a model that cannot be long sustained with the current constraints on self-government. The signs of negative urbanisation and badly coordinated growth are already appearing with alarming speed.
The fully employed people of Guana Cay, about to be treated (by Nassau politicians) to a massive investment project, will now presumably have to accommodate an influx of immigrant labourers. And they have only the politicians in Nassau to look to for solutions to the problems this has created elsewhere in The Bahamas. Good luck.
This is a very good article. Thanks, Erik
Posted by: Erik | November 10, 2005 at 09:36 PM