Don’t double charge for water
McKenzie warns truckers already paid by gov’t not to collect money from residents
Published:Saturday | March 11, 2023 | 12:56 AMAinsworth Morris/Staff Reporter
Minister of Local Government and Rural Development Desmond McKenzie is warning water truck drivers and operators not to sell domestic water they have already been paid to transport to people suffering as a result of the drought now being experienced islandwide.
A week ago, the government announced that an additional $100 million would be spent to provide water for communities affected by the current meteorological drought being experienced across the country. Water will be trucked to areas significantly affected. An allocation of $50 million was previously made to truck water to affected communities.
The $100 million of funding will be channelled jointly through the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, the Ministry of Local Government and the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries.
At a press conference held at the ministry’s offices on Hagley Park Road in St Andrew, McKenzie said that he had received reports from residents in Watermount, St Catherine, who claimed that they were charged for water on Wednesday.
He warned the water truck operators not to charge households for the precious commodity for which they had already been paid by the government.
“I want to make it clear, that the funds provided by the government for the trucking of water, the water that the Government is providing, must be provided to the consumers free of cost. There is no charge associated with the trucking of water! We are not going to allow persons to exploit the problems that people are facing, by doing something which is illegal,” McKenzie declared.
He encouraged residents who were being charged for water already paid for by the government to submit a report to his ministry with the number of the licence plate of the trucks.
McKenzie also announced that three additional water trucks are now being sourced to transport water to a similar number of parishes.
He said that in the next two to three months municipalities without water trucks will get assistance.
Director of the Meteorological Service of Jamaica Evan Thompson said that at the end of January, almost all parishes reported below- normal rainfall with the exception of St Elizabeth. Manchester also experienced below-normal rainfall, but above 50 per cent of the norm. He said the local meteorological data for February is still being collated, and not yet available for dissemination.