Rainwater harvesting a must

THE seasonal drought, which typically lasts from late November to March/April, is at its height and as usual the southern half of the island is worst affected.

The effects are being more acutely felt because the traditional wet months of May/June and September/October last year produced far less rain than is usually the case. Hence the alarmingly low storage levels at supply points such as the Mona reservoir and Hermitage dam -- forcing severe water restrictions in the heavily populated areas of Kingston, St Andrew and St Catherine.

We are reminded in yesterday's Sunday edition that in the context of the current drought, the plight of people in the south-central parishes of Manchester and St Elizabeth is as serious as any.

Drought apart, the collapse of a pump at Pepper, just below St Elizabeth's eastern border with Manchester, has worsened chronic water problems in Mandeville -- Manchester's fast-growing capital -- and its environs.

Manchester is a particularly interesting case. For while Mandeville and several other communities have grown rapidly over recent years, there is very little surface water and no easily accessible underground water to support that growth.

As was bluntly pointed out to 'Manchesterians' two years ago by Mr Basil Fernandez of the Water Resources Authority, the high altitude and geology of the Manchester plateau make water accessibility difficult.

As we understand it, the Pepper facility in St Elizabeth, when fully operational, provides about 4.5 million gallons of water daily for Mandeville and much of wider Manchester. The word is that there are plans to further upgrade sources at Pepper to increase supply to Manchester.

But there is a major rub that can't be ignored. Pepper is in St Elizabeth which, at the best of times, even in the wet months, has problems satisfying the potable water needs of its residents.

Unlike Manchester, much of St Elizabeth has an abundance of underground and surface water. It is testimony to scandalously bad governance and equally poor political representation, that currently -- nearly five decades since political independence -- far fewer than 50 per cent of St Elizabeth's approximately 151,000 people have treated piped water.

It seems to this newspaper that given the current economic realities, the people of St Elizabeth and Manchester should not expect any major improvement in public water supply in the short to medium term.

The answer, it seems to us, is a return to basics: rainwater harvesting in homes and communities. This has been consistently advocated in recent times by the St Elizabeth Parish Council. For the people of Manchester, St Elizabeth and neighbouring parishes, concrete water tanks were the mainstay before the intervention of the National Water Commission. And since water disappears quickly during periods of dry weather, many households had two, even three such tanks.

Sadly, over the last 20 years or so, many of those tanks have fallen into disrepair and misuse. In recent years, many people have also chosen to build their homes without adequate thought to water. Worse, the authorities have allowed it to happen. It should be compulsory -- as indeed it is in some Caribbean countries -- for housing development, big and small, to be supported by rainwater harvesting capacity.

We suspect that the Jamaica Social Investment Fund, with its good record of accessing social-assistance money, is well placed to assist in the construction of tanks for schools and communities. Further, the Government, cash-strapped though it is, could surely provide a boost for private tank building through tax incentives, etc.

At bottom line, ways will have to be found to boost rainwater harvesting.

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