SANTA CRUZ, St Elizabeth – Austin Sinclair has no piped domestic water for many hours each day, though he says, he pays his water bills. But from his home at Comma Pen on the eastern slopes of the Santa Cruz Mountains, Sinclair has an excellent view of the sprinklers keeping the vegetable plots fresh and green on the flat lands down below.

Sinclair, a farmer himself, says he knows that much of the water keeping farms irrigated is stolen – leaving him, his family and his neighbours burdened by the stress, frustration and irritation caused by dry taps.

“Water run (at home) sometime for quarter-hour and then it stop.

sometimes it nuh come back ’til 2:00 (pm) and then it run for maybe two hours and then it gone again,” he complained to journalists and National Water Commission (NWC) officials, outside his home, recently.

And, says Sinclair, when he visits low-lying communities such as Alligator Pond, New Forest and Rowe’s Corner, border districts in Southern Manchester and Southern St Elizabeth, he sees domestic water “jus’ a spout from di rainer (sprinkler) dem.”

NWC officials say such indiscriminate use of domestic water, which originates from a well and pumping station at New Forest in southern Manchester, means very little is left to reach customers at higher elevations in southern St Elizabeth such as Junction, Comma Pen and Bull Savannah. The situation leads to very low water pressure even at relatively low altitudes and gradually as the pipelines go higher the water disappears.

A recent media tour organised by the NWC revealed a number of illegal connections in the vicinity of New Forest and as far up as Comma Pen. Just above the New Forest community, the media tour came upon an aborted illegal connection – water spewing 12 feet high from the punctured pipe. NWC officials said the water thieves had simply abandoned their attempt because the very high water pressure prevented their attempt at reconnection.

But a quarter-mile up the road, under a bridge, the thieves had succeeded – albeit inefficiently – with lots of water running to waste from their makeshift connection.

Sinclair argues that he and others like him can do little to stop even very obvious water theft in their community.

It’s a view that the NWC is trying to change, arguing that locals know when and where the water thefts take place and who the water thieves are, and have a responsibility to themselves and their neighbours to report it.

“The truth is that a large part of the policing has to come from internally,” says Lisa Golding, head of the NWC’s community relations in the western division. “If an illegal connection is made, we are not suggesting that people should go and remove it, but we are suggesting that they should contact us (NWC) immediately .we are not going to be able to do it alone. The communities have to assist. They know where the theft is. They know who the farmers are, who are using the water .” she said.

NWC officials say water theft has for many years been the bane of domestic water schemes in sections of southern St Elizabeth and southern Manchester. The area is often described as Jamaica’s ‘bread basket’ because of the large volumes of agricultural produce.

Farmers in such communities have excelled despite conditions that are among the driest on the island – using innovative moisture conservation methods. But their industriousness notwithstanding, the shortage of water has been a major drawback, causing sympathy and often even a “blind eye” when domestic water is stolen.

But NWC officials and the political directorate are now insisting that such behaviour, which deprive bill-paying customers of the precious commodity, can no longer be tolerated.

At a commissioning ceremony for a revamped water scheme serving the fast-growing town of Junction, late last year, Minister of Water and Housing Donald Buchanan, his junior minister Harry Douglas and member of parliament for South east St Elizabeth Lenworth Blake told NWC officials “to do whatever you have to do” to stop the water thefts.

Buchanan argued that such behaviour was “criminal”and should be treated as such.

In fact, the multi-million-dollar revamping of the water service to Junction, which involved the re-routing of pipes and the building of a new tank, had become necessary as a direct result of water theft and the unauthorised use of domestic water for irrigation purposes by bill payers. The end-result was that for years people in Junction were mostly without piped water.

NWC officials told the Observer that even with the upgrading of the scheme, Junction, which now ranks alongside Black River and Santa Cruz as major towns in St Elizabeth, could again have a major water problem very soon if illegal use of water continues unabated.

While the vandalising of pipes and the outright theft of water is a major concern, the NWC says the use of domestic water for farming is also highly damaging since it, too, significantly reduces the flow to customers upland.

To complicate matters, such usage leads to huge water bills that often remain unpaid. Use of domestic water for farming in southern St Elizabeth and Manchester can run bills up to in excess of $12,000 monthly, accumulating very quickly to tens of thousands of dollars over a period of a few months.

In early January, the NWC calculated that there was some $23 million in “outstanding debts owed to us by people who have used the water supplies and refused to pay their bills” from communities such as Alligator Pond, Duff House, Comma Pen, Junction and Nembhard Town.

Apart from disconnection, prosecution is another option often used by the NWC leading to court fines and the enforced collection of outstanding amounts. But the NWC says “dragging people” before the courts is a last resort.

Golding says the NWC is aware that, for some people, the bills have grown so large that they say ‘why bother’, and just keep using the water illegally”.

But, she says, the company is prepared to make “arrangements” with anyone, once that person is committed to paying the outstanding amount as well as the current bills.

“They can visit our Mandeville office and sit with our customer service manager and go through the problems that they have and we can work out a payment plan. We have done it often in the past. We make arrangements for them to bring their payment plans up-to-date and put them on the system, so they will not suffer disconnections . but they have to be committed,” says Golding.

The problem of water stealing is much more difficult to deal with – not least because the pipe lines run cross-country over hills and valleys.

“To find the illegal connections you literally have to walk the lines, which makes it impossible to police,” explained Golding. And, she says, such connections often are found in an open unused lot “leading to nowhere” which means no one can be held accountable.

From the illegally connected pipes, hoses and sprinklers are attached which are hastily removed when word travels along the “grapevine” via cell phones, etc, that NWC teams are in the area.

All agree that irrigation schemes provide the ultimate long-term answer for the water woes of farmers in southern St Elizabeth.

At the pre-Christmas commissioning in Junction, Buchanan spoke of at least three major projects that will significantly address the needs of farmers, starting with a project servicing the communities of the Pedro Plains, extending eastwards from Hounslow, through Newell, Short Hill, Claremont, etc. That project is slated for completion by June.

Others include rehabilitating the “old” Hounslow irrigation scheme in partnership with the Caribbean Development Bank and the Inter American Development Bank-funded Essex Valley/Duff House irrigation scheme which will serve communities such as New Forest, Lititz and Spring Ground.

Buchanan made the point, then, that with the upgrading of irrigation schemes, the law will weigh even more heavily against those farmers who persist in stealing water.

Meanwhile, Golding says, the NWC will continue to “try to work” with communities in search of a “collaborative effort”.

myersg@jamaicaobserver.com