By INDERIA SAUNDERS, Guardian Staff Reporter

interia@nasguard.com

A downpour of rain left puddles of water and mini roof leaks that greeted residents and visitors to The Bahamas as they entered the airport yesterday.

What some may call a manic Monday with grey skies and steady rainfall that delayed traffic all over the island, others might have seen it as having a negative effect on tourism as many visitors to the country had to dodge being splashed by dirty water leaking from the roof of the Lynden Pindling International Airport. Onlookers observed tourists trying to photograph the unsightly state of the airport as they made their way outside of the arrival section of the airport.

"[Visitors] had their cameras out and were taking pictures of all the water in the airport," said an onlooker.

Acting General Manager of the Airport, Joseph Reckley said that airport authority officials were aware of this occurrence, but were unable to do anything about the leaks until the rain halted to the point where someone could go on top on the roof and see where the leaks were coming from. "As soon as the weather permits someone will identify the areas that are leaking and try to get it patched," said the executive. "There is nothing else you can do about it. Roofs leak [and] there is nothing you can do about it but find it and repair it."

Mr Reckley admitted that this was indeed a big problem that the airport will probably address in the future as leaking was frequent in both terminals one and two which are used for international departures, arrivals and pre-clearance before departure. He said that over the years, quite a number of people from different companies all over town have tried to patch the continuous leaks on the roof, but the problem is one that just persists.

"One of the reasons why the roof leaks so often is because of how it is built," explained Mr Reckley. "It is a flat shaped roof and that causes the pressure to build up and causes the leaks. We have discussed putting a different shaped roof there as a way to stop the leaking every time it rains."

He revealed that the process of replacing the roof at terminal one would actually run the government into millions of dollars. He explained that for right now $400 thousand worth of patches on the roof would have to suffice until a major renovation can be done. "One of the reasons we are looking into tearing down terminal one is that it is not very cost effective to continuously be doing those kinds of things and spending that kind of money."

He said the airport authority was also preparing to face issues with the roof of terminal two because the terminal is sixteen years of age and wear and tear should be evident soon.

"It was built in 1993 and there have been no leaks since 1993 and that is extremely well," said Mr Reckley. "It is coming around to the time where there will be some problems with that side."

He said that the process of patching a roof was not a simple one, as water comes down the roof in a particular spot, but that does not necessarily have to be the spot that is leaking.