as NWC declares repairs 31% complete ...
Harbour View sewage overflow persists
Published:Thursday | October 5, 2023 | 12:06 AMAinsworth Morris/Staff Reporter
Two weeks after the National Water Commission (NWC) promised that work valued at $84 million would start for the repair of a broken sewage main in Harbour View, St Andrew, the residents remain disgusted with the authorities over the matter.
For weeks, residents and passersby have had to contend with an overflow of sewage along Norman Manley Boulevard in Harbour View, springing from a manhole in the vicinity of the newly developed housing scheme Seascape.
Among the residents most upset are teachers and healthcare workers at the Neptune Early Childhood Development Centre and Harbour View Health Centre.
Tracy Lee, senior teacher, Neptune Early Childhood Development Centre, where the sewage has settled at its gateway, told The Gleaner on Tuesday that even with work taking place at the roundabout, they have seen no major changes and the health of the children they care for remains threatened.
“Every morning when I come over, I have to stop at the pipe, get sanitiser with napkins and clean off my shoes because I can’t go into the classroom like that,” Lee said.
Lee pointed out that the school’s playing field is near where the sewage settles, and it has been abandoned since the start of the 2023-2024 academic year.
“We cannot let them [the children] go on the playing field , which is around there! And that’s horrible. The stench is wicked! And we have a daycare centre with three-month old babies, and we can’t close the daycare and the school because of this,” she said.
PARENTS RESTRICTED
She said parents have been restricted from entering the school compound because of the excessive bacteria they may take on to the compound should they step in the sewage puddles.
When The Gleaner visited the Harbour View Health Centre, which adjoins the school compound, healthcare workers, although disgusted by the situation, declined to comment.
Instead, they directed the news team to the Kingston and St Andrew Health Department.
Amid the disgust of residents, Delano Williams, from the Corporate Public Relations Department at the NWC, said the repair work, which was promised to start on September 17, is now 31 per cent complete up to yesterday and that the utility company had been replacing damaged sections of the line over the last two weeks at the Harbour View roundabout.
NEW MANHOLES
“The work in Harbour View is really to replace collapsed domains that traverse between the boundaries of Seascape and just beyond the Harbour View roundabout,” Williams explained to The Gleaner.
“We are installing new manholes there. The pace of the work is a little slower over the last few days, but once we complete this aspect of it, we expect to move speedily over the next 200 to 300 metres of pipeline that needs to be replaced,” he said.
Williams said the roundabout is a very delicate and intricate portion of the work, which takes time.
He also said the overflow of sewage at the manhole near Seascape remains a challenge but that the NWC expects to remedy it over the next 24 hours.
“We expect to remedy it over the next 24 hours because we would be at another point where we have accepted that the lines are collapsed and they are causing a back-up of the sewage. What we are doing now is to complete this last set of work in the roundabout, which will allow us to further extend along the median and to replace the additional section of collapsed line,” he said.
He said the work at the round-a-bout is expected to be completed by this weekend; on or before October 8, and is contingent on inclement weather.