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NWC committed, but not to Mandeville

Published:Tuesday | February 19, 2019 | 12:00 AM

THE EDITOR, Sir:

In response to the column in The Sunday Gleaner, ‘NWC committed to meeting Jamaica’s water needs’, written by Mark Barnett, president of the National Water Commission (NWC), I must commend the NWC for finally putting together a number of projects that will increase water availability for the country. The outline of expenditure speaks ‘volumes’.

I must, however, take issues with the low allocations for rural areas , and in particular, Mandeville.

From the table of expenditure presented, one tenth of the resources goes to the rural areas ($1 billion, as oppose to $10 billion for Kingston).

I am living in Mandeville on DeCarteret Road, close to the town centre, where the water situation is atrocious. The norm is to have a two-hour trickle once per week, down from the three times per week five years ago. I live by rainfall and trucked water in the lower area. Can you imagine what it is like for people on the hills?

Since the Greater Mandeville Water Supply was developed decades ago, there have been no improvements to the system. It has got rather worse and with hundreds of houses unconnected due to the lack of water, for example, in the Moorlands area, what will the NWC tell the Mandeville people.

If ‘water is life’ what do you think the ‘lack of water’ is?

DANIEL LEWIS

danlew2020@gmail.com