St James East Central water woes to be addressed by September
Published:Saturday | August 19, 2023 | 12:08 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
SEVERAL COMMUNITIES in St James East Central which have suffered from water supply issues for years may look forward to full water supply by the end of September. This follows the projected completion of $600 million worth of rehabilitation work on the Rhyne Park water-pumping system.
Matthew Samuda, the minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, and St James East Central Member of Parliament (MP) Edmund Bartlett made the announcement yesterday. This happened as they addressed the constituency’s 26th annual education awards ceremony for tertiary students at the Iberostar Hotel in Rose Hall.
In his keynote address at Friday’s function, which took place hours after a tour of the two pumps at Rhyne Park which have been undergoing rehabilitation and upgrading, Samuda noted that a 500,000-gallon tank will be built to store water in case the pump at the new site breaks down.
“That $600-million investment that will provide 1.5 million gallons a day to that area within east central St James, it will do so with modern technology to pump it. It will do so taking out some of the manual elements, so there will be no more stories about ‘who turned on the pump when’ and ‘when it was directed where’; those days are coming to an end, as it will be a mechanised system,” said Samuda.
“We are going to put in place sufficient resilience by putting in place generators by these pumps, and we are going to build an additional 500,000-gallon tank to ensure that even when something goes down, there is sufficient water in the community for a couple of days if, God forbid, anything happens to the equipment,” Samuda explained.
Residents of Rhyne Park have repeatedly complained of inconsistent water supply in their area dating as far back as 2012, with some arguing that they only get the commodity three days per week. In other communities across the constituency, to include Guilsborough, Tambala and Goodwill, residents have had to rely on water shops to supply the commodity for their various needs.
But during his address, Bartlett was all smiles as he outlined the communities which will benefit from the new system, to include Rose Hall itself, and also provided a related update on the Cedar Hill water supply system in Somerton.
“The problem that St James East Central has had with water is perhaps our biggest problem, and we were able this morning [Friday] to view the system which is almost complete and almost ready for activation and commission. It is the largest water infrastructure that the constituency has seen, to bring 1.1 million gallons of water to the communities of Rose Hall, Palmyra, Paisley, Mt Zion, King Gate, and all the areas going around all the way to Greenwood,” said Bartlett.
“We are going to go to the other side of the constituency, where we have a large 400,000-gallon tank that has just been built at Cedar Hill in Somerton. As we speak, the pipes are connecting the Canaan source to that tank, and also pipes are being laid for distribution to Windsor, so now we will cover all the communities of Adelphi, Somerton, Industry, Yorkland, Latium, Orange and Over River, Irwin Heights, Goodwill, Blytheston, and Content,” Bartlett added.
“Minister Samuda tells me that by the end of September, that entire section of St James East Central, both the south and the north, will have adequate water.”
Last October, Bartlett announced that a gravity-feed water system would be opened in the constituency’s Cedar Hill area to provide water supply for several surrounding communities in time for that upcoming Christmas season.