BY KIMMO MATTHEWS Observer staff reporter matthewsk@jamaicaobserver.com
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
ANGER continued to boil in Hampshire yesterday as residents of the North-East St Catherine community voiced disgust at having to find $6,000 per week to purchase water, despite the fact that the majority of them were unemployed. The community has not had piped water for more than 20 years.
At the same time, health ministry officials journeyed to neighbouring Riversdale yesterday and denied, in a meeting, that the health centre there lacked water. However, residents, who on Monday fumed that they have not had piped water in the community for several months, insisted that the health officials were not speaking the truth.
The officials, led by South East Regional Health Authority (SERHA) Chairman Lyttleton Shirley, went to Riversdale in response to yesterday’s Jamaica Observer lead story reporting on the lack of water in the community and at the health centre.
The Observer reported that the health centre was reduced to using one bucket of water a day for its operations and staff were on the verge of closing the facility if the problem was not addressed.
“At no time the demand on the National Water Commission (NWC) to truck water to the location has ever failed,” said Shirley.
His claim was supported by Donald Farquharson, SERHA regional director. “NWC, on a very consistent basis, provides the water that is demanded by the health centre,” he said. However, he added: “We are not saying that in the wider community there is not an issue.”
Yesterday, when the Observer called corporate public relations manager at the NWC Charles Buchanan for a comment on the issue, he said that NWC officials were called in the past — as late as last Friday — to delay delivery of the commodity to the health centre close to weekends as there have been reports that residents have ventured onto the property to remove the water without permission.
“If they delivered on Friday, when they have clinic day on Tuesday, they might not have any because the residents may have removed the water from the tank,” Buchanan said. But even as the health officials were attempting to deal with the issue at the Riversdale Health Centre, residents in Hampshire were hot under the collar about their circumstances. “When you check, it a cost the average family $6,000 every week to full a tank from the private man dem,” said Antonette Martin, a shop owner in the community.
Calvert Davis, a farmer, said that with conservative use a small tank filled with water could serve the average family for a week. “The people dem, most of dem nah work. Where dem must find $6,000 every week to buy water? That is more than minimum wage,” said Noel Collins.
Residents who could not afford to purchase the commodity said they had to walk for more than a mile to catch water from a river. However, that is posing another problem. “Water in the river drying up,” said Martin. “People have to be travelling as far as Bog Walk to catch water, but what about those who can’t?” Davis interjected: “What about the sick, the less fortunate, those who are not strong enough to travel? They are left to suffer.
” Collins could not conceal his anger. “Is more than 15 years me nuh benefit from pipe water, and the parish council not doing anything to solve the problem,” he fumed. Grace Robinson, who was seen returning from the river with a small bucket of water was equally angry. “From me a teenager, and mi now in mi 30s, mi never see a water truck come up in the area, and I never see water come at my pipe,” he said.
One woman, who declined to give her name, and who said that she has not been able to take a shower in three days, said: “Right now, people in the area are desperate and are planning to do something serious if we don’t get some attention.” Yesterday, Gregory Mair, the member of parliament for North-East St Catherine, said the residents’ claims were true.
“The problem is really serious. This is something that I have been calling on the NWC and other authorities to address in the last six years,” Mair told the Observer.
The MP complained that his calls have fallen on deaf ears, and said now that the Observer has published a story on the problem he hoped that the situation would be addressed. He said he was seeking to hold a meeting with the NWC tomorrow. Yesterday, Buchanan insisted that Hampshire was one of a number of communities not linked to the NWC’s system. He said the parish council had the responsibility to deliver the service.
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Anger Flows
