Price Lane residents bearing brunt of sewage water since NWC's temporary fix

Temporary work carried out on a section of the troublesome National Water Commission (NWC) sewer main on North Street, Kingston, near two of Jamaica's oldest boys' schools has eased the worries of a few but has caused unimaginable pain for several others living on Price Lane.

Waste water has flowed freely from homes on both sides of Price Lane since the work was done on the system on Tuesday night and frustrated residents used debris and old tires to block North Street yesterday morning.

Blockages have since been cleared by the police, but the residents are worried that the situation could pose a serious threat to their health.

The NWC attempted to make minor adjustments to the lines in order to alleviate the suffering of residents along North Street.

"I have grandchildren living in the house with me, and they can't event play in the yard because of the state it's in due to waste water that just keeps flowing up here," said Sue-Ann Reid.

Another resident, Cecil Douglas, who operates a shop in the community, had to close for the day, he said, because of the foul odour and constant flow of the sewage water past his home and shop.

"This can't go on any longer. From de man dem from NWC come say dem fix up top, is we down the bottom here who a suffer," Douglas said.

"Last night, a pure vomiting me deh pon because of this. See it deh! Not even mi shop me can afford fi open today," he said.

... 'People, are going to get sick. Trust me!'

Fabian Walker, another resident, told The Gleaner that it is the worst that he has seen the situation in years.

"This thing has been going on for years and it affects a whole lot of people around here. They have to come and look at this because people going to get sick because of it. Trust me," he said.

The NWC Communications Director, Charles Buchanan, said that a team would have been dispatched to have a look at the situation to see how best to confront the challenge.

Thirty-six million dollars was spent recently on the upper section of the North Street sewer line, but that, too, has failed to address the problem.

Subsequently, Dr Horace Chang, minister with responsibility for water, environment and housing, stated that his ministry accepted responsibility for the continuous free flowing of sewage along the roadway, which should have been corrected after a recent lengthy multimillion-dollar project and added that the ministry was sourcing funds to complete the rehabilitation work of the North Street line through to Spanish Town.