Samuda warns against stealing water tanks

FOLLOWING THE theft of a water tank from the Negril Primary School earlier this month, Matthew Samuda, minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, is calling on residents to report individuals who are involved so that they may be punished.

During a press conference on Earth Day, which was globally celebrated on Monday, Samuda, whose portfolio has responsibility for water, said the police have been asked to investigate the theft of the school’s water tank and other allegations.

“Allegations of spurious interventions. We’ve asked [the] police to take a look at those allegations. If anyone is tampering with the [National] Water Commission (NWC) network, we’re asking you to report it to the police, or to report it to the office of the president, or to myself. We have no evidence of it, but the accusations continue, and we want to assure citizens that if they report it, we will investigate, and we will punish anyone who is caught in that regard,” Samuda said.

“I also want to assure residents that we are clear that trucking is not the only or the best option, but it is the option we have for emergency response right now. It is why we are also ensuring that additional trucking be made available to the citizens going into the end of May, when an assessment will be done,” he said.

With regard to the theft of the tank at Negril Primary School, Samuda said that was “not an act of desperation”, but “an act of shared vulgar criminality”.

“We should commend the members of the law-enforcement agencies who are investigating this. We are expecting them to have a breakthrough, or rather, we hope they will have a breakthrough soon,” he said.

The press conference was held at the offices of the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation in New Kingston.

To prevent the disruption of schools due to a lack of water, Samuda said Prime Minister Andrew Holness met with him and Fayval Williams, minister of education and youth, and asked that an immediate assessment be done, led by the Rural Water Supply Limited, for all public schools in the parishes of Hanover and Westmoreland “with a move to increase water storage over the next four to six weeks”.

Troubleshooting network

“We don’t intend for any learning loss for any of our schools. We will be moving to set up a troubleshooting network dedicated to schools, to ensure that they are not disrupted. Schools are paramount, and we do not intend for any learning loss,” Samuda said.

“The [National] Water Commission and, indeed, the Ministry [of Education and Youth] have made an effort, have redoubled their efforts rather, to communicate with citizens,” he said.

Samuda also highlighted that there might be an issue with disruption in the electrical supply to pump stations, which have further limited the water supply to the town of Negril.

Regarding this, Samuda said he met with Daryl Vaz, Minister of Science, Energy, Telecommunications and Transport, to convene a meeting between the NWC and the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) to ensure that “where possible”, they coordinate their work to prevent a disruption in water supplies.

“Let’s not confuse this. There is disruption because of climatic factors to water supply in western Jamaica ... . NWC may have a scheduled supply, but JPS has scheduled work to take place on their power supply at the time where we need to pump water,” he said.

ainsworth.morris@gleanerjm.com