NWC and its mandate

The Editor, Sir:

The piece on the National Water Commission (NWC) by Professor Carolyn Cooper (Sunday Gleaner, January 24), and Charles Buchanan's letter in response (Gleaner, February 1) have highlighted issues of major public interest concerning one of our essential services.

One appreciates the trouble that Mr Buchanan has taken to set the record straight on certain factual points in Professor Cooper's article. Nevertheless, the general tenor of his observations gives cause for a certain disquiet. His letter gives the impression - perhaps unintended - that the commission can only remain passive in the face of developments on lands it does not own, adjacent to the Mona Reservoir.

Concerned individuals and civil society groups, in defence of the public interest, regularly seek to provide inputs into the decision-making process affecting developments on private property that impinge on the welfare of the wider community. The NWC, as a matter of duty, should be even more zealous than this, and be vigorously proactive in protecting the efficacy of the mission it is formally mandated to pursue.

I am, etc.,

RODERICK RAINFORD

Maryland

St Andrew