Just ask the residents of some of the lesser known islands of the Bahamas. While electric service on New Providence and Grand Bahama, the country's two largest islands, has long been taken for granted, it is not always a given in what are known as the Family Islands. This archipelago of several hundred mostly uninhabited islands extends over nearly 300 miles, making the provision of basic infrastructure services complex and expensive.

Until recently, many residents of the largest Family Islands, including Abaco, Bimini, Eleuthera, Exuma Cays, Long Island and Moore's Island, got by with small residential generators, part-time municipal service, or no electricity at all. Today, nearly all the residents of these particular islands have electricity, thanks to diesel generators installed as part of an ambitious government infrastructure effort launched in 1993.

The Family Islands Electrification Program, partly financed by a $31 million loan from the IDB, is part of a broader strategy of decentralizing Bahamas' national development process and improving the quality of life in the country's numerous smaller island communities. According to Oscar Spencer, the sector specialist in charge of the electrification program in the IDB's Bahamas office, the project has also helped make these islands more attractive to foreign and domestic investors.

For Ivonne Dittmar, an employee at the Stella Maris Resort in Long Island, the benefits of the electrification program are clear. Now that the Bahamas Electricity Corporation supplies power on her island, "electricity is a little cheaper and the supply is more reliable."

Mrs. Verdell Butler, who runs the Chill Bar & Restaurant in Crown Haven, on the island of Abaco, was initially unwilling to give up her personal generator. "We have about three deep freezers, our home and the restaurant to operate and in the summer we also use the air conditioner," she explained. But after seeing the benefits of municipal service, she and her family decided to sell the generator and switch to the new service.

As part of its ongoing support for Bahamas' infrastructure modernization efforts, the IDB in February announced the approval of a $23.5 million loan to improve solid waste management, strengthen environmental protection, and enhance health standards.

The resources will help finance disposal facilities in New Providence and 10 of the Family Islands, along with the construction of a special hazardous waste disposal facility. Resources will also be used to strengthen the Department of Environmental Health Services of the Ministry of Consumer, Welfare and Aviation.

--reported by Tisca Pratt, Nassau, Bahamas