Sandals Negril has been one of the properties at the forefront of water conservation efforts, and the hotel used this year’s observance of World Water day to get that message across to other members of the community.

“Jamaica, in the next 25 years, will have to import fresh water for drinking if we do not conserve on the amount water we use now on a daily basis,” said the hotel’s environment manager, Melesha Gunning.

She was one of the presenters at the seminar, which was staged at Beaches Sandy Bay.

She added that between November 1998 and October 2000 for example, Sandals Negril saved 9.9 million litres of water. Against this background, Gunning encouraged other properties and Negril residents who had not already joined the conservation craze, to get in on the act.

Also at the seminar were representatives of the National Water Commission (NWC) who explained the steps being taken to ensure that waste water does not contaminate potable water supplies.

Manager of North Coast Waste Water Treatment Centre, Junior Francis, said there have been previous attempts by the NWC to educate the general public on the importance of these issues. But he added that there were individuals, especially in Kingston, who continued to dump garbage and dead animals in water systems and treatment plants.

In addition, customer liaison officer for waste water management, Dawn Whyte, noted that a great majority of Jamaicans do not care what happens to waste water. She added, however, that she was hopeful that seminars like the one staged would help to change these prevailing attitudes.

The resort area of Negril on a whole, meanwhile, is pressing ahead with its conservation efforts and there appears to have been some improvement in the number of individuals and businesses connected to the sewage system.

According to NWC maintenance supervisor, Wayne McIntosh, there was a 35 per cent increase in 2001 in the amount of sewage treated the year before.

“For the year 2000, 931 million litres of sewage was treated and for last year, 1,258 million litres were treated,” he said

And it was deliberate that 90 per cent of the people who met at Beaches Sandy Bay for the seminar were students drawn from schools from as far as Savanna-la-Mar as organisers thought that this was the best group to target for the educational exercise.

“We choose the children to carry the message as their minds and practices are easier to change and they are in a position to carry out the practice for years to come,” Gunning said.