Wakefield residents battle water-supply crisis

The community of Wakefield in rural St Catherine continues to thirst for access to running water in their taps. The years-long inconvenience has soured the spirits of residents of the farming community, which largely relies on the weather to bring down showers of blessings.

One local shopowner told The Gleaner that the cost to supply her house monthly has been exorbitant.

The woman, who did not want to be named, said that it costs her $10,000 to fill a 650-gallon water tank and two 400-litre water drums at her house that supplies the seven occupants.

The water lasts for two weeks – maybe three, if they are lucky.

“That’s a lot of money for an essential [commodity]. Sometimes I can’t even full them, [and so] I have to pay somebody to wash [my clothes], because I can’t use the washing machine again,” she said.

Her shop, from which she earns a living, has also been impacted greatly, she said, given that money has to be budgeted fortnightly to purchase water.

“I have to put aside all the fancy living. Look at my hair. From December I do my hair and I can’t do it again, because if I should do my hair, every two weeks, I can’t bathe,” she said, displaying the state of her locks.

“If I go out, if I’m to live fancy, my business is going to run down ... . I have to put aside a lot of things to survive,” she added.

Warren Sullivan, who lives at the foot of a hill in the area, has access to a central standpipe, which has the capacity to supply residents with water.

Despite living close to the pipe, it has been a difficult experience for him as well, as he finds it inconvenient not having running water in his home.

He stated that the National Water Commission (NWC) had started some work at the community pump station the week prior, but had seemingly abandoned the job because a portion of the ground next to the pump had collapsed.

Vinton Mitchell, an elder in the community, argued that the water from the standpipe was not of the best quality.

“Sometimes we get dirt inna it. Sometimes we get all kind a things inna it. The water nuh too hundred [per cent] ‘cause we can’t drink it ... . Sometimes when you catch it, you’ll see the sand grain,” he said, noting that there have been times when the turbidity makes it impossible to utilise the water.

“We have a serious problem,” Mitchell told The Gleaner. “We have a lot of wells, so we shoulda been able to get water.”

Farmers in an area of Wakefield called Mexico also continue to struggle in the harsh conditions.

In 2021, after months without water, residents rapidly drew from three 3,000-litre vertical water tanks and one 3,000-gallon horizontal container at the Wakefield Primary School, after calls to the Ministry of Education and Youth for the precious commodity to be trucked were answered.

Principal Tameca Riley-Powell told The Gleaner that after the end of the schoolday, residents would empty the school’s tanks, jeopardising the hygiene of staff and the more than 200 students.

DEALING WITH THEFT

To prevent theft, the institution was forced to implement stringent security measures, such as turning off the water supply at the end of the schoolday and installing locks on the pipes.

Homeowner Monica Small, who also raises chickens and plant crops such as cocoa, banana and plantain, is heavily dependent on rainfall.

Living further up the hill than shopowner Pam, Small told The Gleaner that she has to pay $18,000 to fill her 1,000-gallon, 680-litre and 650-litre water tanks.

She said that had there not been a short period of rainfall last Wednesday night, she would not have been able to wash her clothes on Thursday.

And while she can sometimes delay doing her laundry, she often has to dig deep to get sufficient quantities for her chicken-rearing business, which requires a lot of water.

At times, she said, she has to fill her tanks and drums for $6,000 per week, bringing her monthly water expense to $24,000.

Delano Williams, acting corporate public relations manager at the NWC, told The Gleaner that the Wakefield well was a “unique water system” that is impacted by high levels of turbidity. He said that over the past two years, the water quality has been so poor that water distribution has been impossible.

“We have had to do well development, which is [the] cleaning of the well system, retesting, recalibration, and restarting of the pumps on two occasions over the last two years. But these, still, would not have fully alleviated the situation,” he said.

Williams stated that in 2021, a team was mobilised to carry out emergency work at the pumps, check on the state of the well, and conduct remedial work. However, at the start of this operation, a section around the well had, indeed, collapsed and because of this, work was halted to carry out assessments, which is in the process of completion.

During this period of disruption, Williams said that alternative water supply plants are being used to supply a large section of Wakefield, primarily in the lower sections of the community.

“We also take request from customers who are situated from any point that cannot be served via pipeline,” he said, adding that two meetings were kept to engage with residents to facilitate trucking of water to their homes.

He, however, pointed out that a large percentage of residents who are within the water network were not registered as customers of the NWC.

“And that, in itself, makes it difficult for us to know how to serve them, because we don’t have contact or locations for them,” he said.

Williams said that more work will need to be conducted around the pump station before the well-rehabilitation exercises can be conducted. A plan for this, he said, has been submitted to the relevant authorities for approval.

He said that once the work resumes, it would take four weeks for the contractor to complete the excavation, drilling and well retesting processes.

A suitable water quality must be met, in the short term, to resume operations of water distributed to homes, he added.

He stated that in the long term, the NWC hopes to implement a new design of the water pump that will work more efficiently with the type of well that is in the location.

asha.wilks@gleanerjm.com