Residents of Moore’s Island have faced many challenges since the passage of Hurricane Dorian especially with infrastructure. The Member of Parliament for South and Central Abaco, the Hon. John Pinder visited the island and promised to relief.
Mr. Pinder said, “its important that the devastation from Dorian, its not just bringing these things to light but we get them fixed. We really want to overcome a lot of these challenges that I’ve seen over my year in office. And after doing the assessments I realize that this island, in particular, has so much potential and can be such a great asset for the economy of The Bahamas in a whole that we need to put a great focus here and a significant capital investment.”
During the budget debate this past June, the Minister of Public Works and Utilities, the Hon. Alfred Sears, announced the Government’s intention to invest $12 million in infrastructural upgrades on Moore’s Island. Mr. Pinder spoke to the potential for tourism post the planned upgrades. He said, “the airport here is very important. We need an extension of the runway, only very small planes could actually land here and the terminal has to be fully functioning. Once that’s done the Ministry of Tourism is gonna put a focus on showcasing this as another destination in Abaco. Abaco has great demand for tourism, we want to bring ’em down here but there’s couple things we need. We need an airport terminal. We need a proper airstrip with lights. We need our main public dock. And when bringing these here it’ll give us the tools we need to bring in the tourist.”
Pinder also spoke to the resilience of the residents of Moore’s Island who took it upon themselves to repair the public dock. He said, “they took the wood out of the bush and wherever Dorian had placed it and put it back together and mix matched and built what they have and that we’re using today. What we’re doing is to give them a proper cement pier that won’t be impacted by future hurricanes and will help bolster their commercial fisheries. And then further more when, its my drive to bring tourism here so the frequency of the freight boats coming in, the larger vessels will all benefit from a cement pier main public dock.”
