WESTERN BUREAU — About 300 residents of Orange District in East Central St James took to the streets for several hours yesterday, to protest against the inadequate water supply in their communities.

The placard-bearing demonstrators blocked the roads from as early as 4:00 am, but traffic resumed before noon after workers from Western Parks and Markets, along with a contingent of about 13 police officers cleared the roadway.

The residents, who complained that they have been without an adequate water supply for three weeks, earned the sympathy of Jamaica Labour Party candidate/caretaker for the area, Ed Bartlett. In a statement, Bartlett said the protest was “long overdue and fully justified”. At the same time he accused the National Water Commission of doling out water on a partisan basis, with People’s National Party supporters receiving trucked delivery while JLP supporters were ignored.

According to Bartlett, water was delivered to the area two days ago, but only to a list of well-known government supporters. Asserting that the NWC’s partisan distribution of the vital commodity was “utterly revolting”, Bartlett called on the water and housing ministry to urgently put in place an adequate piped water system to serve the areas of Orange, Murray Hill and Moore Park.

But the National Water Commission has rejected his allegations of unfair water distribution. According to NWC community relations officer, Lisa Golding, she was at the scene of the protest for more than an hour and no one had levelled those charges.

“I heard no allegations of any partisan (distribution), I am not aware of any partisan (distribution of water),” she told the Observer.

She added that the NWC has been trucking water to the area for the past two weeks, on request of those persons who had a problem with low pressure or no supply at all. According to the NWC schedule, the rapid response trucks were in the area between 9:00 am to 12:00 noon and then again from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm for the last three days.

Golding explained that after an NWC investigation had traced the problem to a faulty pump, a larger pump was being sourced to meet the demand.

According to the NWC spokesperson, a replacement pump of a similar size to the one removed was on the way from Kingston when the NWC received word of Thursday’s demonstration.

Recognising that the replacement pump will not fix the old problems of low pressure, the NWC has assured residents that it would continue trucking water to the entire area.

The larger pump should be installed by next Friday and it is expected that this will ensure that the entire area is adequately supplied without reliance on the rapid response trucks.