By INDERIA SAUNDERS, Guardian Staff Reporter

inderia@nasguard.com

Clean water for more of the Family Islands is next on their agenda, Works Ministry officials said during a tour of the Reverse Osmosis Plant in Eleuthera.

On a visit to Eleuthera last week, Minister of Works and utilities, Bradley B. Roberts, said that supplying good potable water is a definite goal for all of the Family Islands. He said he wanted to bring first class water by the process of reverse osmosis to everyone, no matter where they lived in the Bahamas.

"RO Plants will shortly be installed in Acklins, Green Turtle Cay Abaco, Sweetings Cay, Grand Bahama," said the minister.

Mr. Roberts said that the RO programme for the other islands of the Bahamas would continue into the year 2007. However, he did not give exact dates as to when these projects can be expected to commence.

On his exploration of the new arrow plant in Eleuthera, Mr. Roberts and ambassador to the environment, Keod Smith, examined the old US Navy base to ensure that everything was on schedule. Mr. Roberts said that the plant will be able to pump 400,000 imperial gallons a day when it is fully operational, but at the moment it is only functioning at half that rate.

Mr. Smith urged the public to research the importance of water in the environment.

"The use of RO plants is one way to use and sustain what we have," explained Mr. Smith.