Not rated — no significant reservoirs
Bahamas is set aside from the ranking rather than graded. Having no significant reservoir storage is a geographic fact, not a transparency failure — so assigning an “F” would be misleading.
H1 2026 Evaluation
Bahamas Reservoir Transparency
N/AWhy it's not rated
No surface reservoirs: flat limestone islands where rivers are ephemeral.
Where its water comes from
Freshwater groundwater lenses on the outer islands plus reverse-osmosis desalination (~90% on New Providence).
Reference source
WSC — Water and Sewerage Corporation of The Bahamas
https://wsc.com.bsEvaluator notes
The Bahamas is a pure structural case: the archipelago's 700+ islands and 2,400 cays are all low-lying coral limestone formations with no rivers, no topographic relief suitable for damming, and no natural surface impoundments. Fresh groundwater is found in freshwater lenses — thin bodies of meteoric water floating atop denser saline groundwater — in the larger outer islands such as Andros, Abaco, and Grand Bahama. For New Providence (Nassau), which houses nearly 70% of the population, approximately 90% of water is produced by reverse osmosis. The Water and Sewerage Corporation (WSC) is the governing authority and is undergoing significant governance modernisation under IDB and GCF-financed programmes, including improved metering and data management, but none of this relates to reservoir monitoring. The RTI framework cannot be applied to The Bahamas for surface water because no surface reservoirs exist. All scores except language_usability are zero for structural, not governance, reasons. This evaluation should not be interpreted as a criticism of the WSC, which operates competently within the physical constraints of its service territory.
Evaluated by Jaime Delgado · 2026-09-15 · Methodology v1.3.0