They cry for water
RESIDENTS of Seivwright Gardens and adjoining communities in Kingston and officials of the National Water Commission (NWC) are at loggerheads over the reason for the lack of running water in the community.
The residents claim that they are living testimony that someone could “bathe with a cupful of water” and have been living their lives with a trickle of the precious liquid for upwards of 10 years. Water, they say, flows in their pipes for an average of two hours at inconvenient times of the morning.
But the NWC is adamant that the absence of water in the pipes is to be blamed on the refusal of the residents to pay water bills and the problem of illegal connections to the commission’s system.
“Right now we don’t have the resources to improve their water supply,” said Don Cooper, NWC community relations officer for Kingston, St Andrew and St Thomas.
The Sunday Observer went into the affected areas of Solitaire Road, Woodpecker Avenue, Mahoe Drive and Flinch Crescent where residents say they have gone without water for weeks at a time, and when the water comes, it is never enough to do their basic domestic chores.
Beryl Veitch, who lives at Solitaire Road, invited the Sunday Observer into her yard in order to drive home her point. True to Veitch’s claim, the taps were all dry. The woman’s disgust was evident.
“We have to be walking and begging water. We only get water for two hours at a low pressure about three o’clock in the morning time and dat a some time,” the woman said as she pointed to a pile of dirty pots and dishes which she said had been that way for days. The doves and pigeons that are kept as pets by the family are also affected by the water shortage. Their drinking water was stagnant.
“The poor bird dem haffi drink dutty water,” the woman complained sadly.
Veitch’s daughter, Lauretta, showed the Sunday Observer an estimated water bill for just over $9,000, sent to them despite the fact that they have not had regular access to water for so many years.
Other residents in the area made the same ‘dry’ cry. One woman, clearly overcome, did not mince words.
“The man dem inna the community a lef wi fi other woman because we nah bathe regular,” the woman declared.
Trevor Codner who has been living in the community for upwards of 30 years, blasted the NWC, saying that the community had been the victim of an unsatisfactory water supply since the late 1970s.
“This problem is going on since me was a boy in the 70s,” he told the Sunday Observer. “The company is not doing enough to address the problem. Dem come and dig up last year and since that, nothing,” Codner added with obvious frustration, saying that five members of parliament had represented the area to no avail.
However, Cooper denied the residents’ claim that they had lived without a regular water supply for over 20 years. Cooper told the Sunday Observer that most persons in that area did not pay for the water they consumed.
“The problem has not been going on that long,” Cooper said. “Most people in that area have not paid their water bills for some time.”
Cooper’s comment, though, has enraged some of the residents, one of whom described him as “feisty”.
“Why should we pay for something we have not been getting?” one of them, who declined to be named, asked.
A former resident of the community, who had directed the Sunday Observer to the story and who also requested anonymity, said Cooper’s claim that the problem was not long-standing was “nonsense”.
“I lived in that community for more than 30 years,” he said, “and certainly, since the late 1970s I did not have water during the days. In fact, I had to catch enough water in buckets and wash pans at nights in order to shower and flush my toilet each day. It was very embarrassing, especially when I had visitors from abroad.”
Leaking pipelines and illegal connections to the water main were putting a strain on the system, Cooper said. That, coupled with threats to NWC workers, was a hindrance to the area being provided with a regular water supply.
“People have made illegal connections and this, along with leaking pipelines and the fact that 10 to 12 families live on one premises, the system cannot hold the strain. In addition, whenever NWC employees go into the area to do upgrading or repair work they are threatened by persons who demand work,” Cooper said.
According to Cooper, the area is supplied with water from the White Marl and Tulloch Springs pumps in St Catherine and the water company was not in a position to improve the water supply situation in that area at this point.