CARMEN McKenly does not wake up to the smell of strong black coffee or sun-kissed roses in the mornings.

Instead, she starts each day with a familiar feeling of nausea, brought on by the foul odour emanating from the nearby Bridgeport treatment plant.

“Sometimes the smell is very high, when it ready. And when it rains, there is a stinky, mouldy smell,” she added.

In fact, McKenly told the Observer that a couple of years ago the stench from the plant was even more overpowering. But it was not immediately clear whether the ‘improvement’ was due to repair work that may have been done to correct some of the problems at the plant.

Neighbour Leroy Ferguson also agreed that the stench from the plant was not as bad as it was five years ago, but said the authorities needed to do more to fix the problems at the plant, which was in need of proper maintenance.

“Yes, the smell is still bad. I think there is a problem with the blowers that are supposed to suppress the scent,” Ferguson said, adding “we want them to move the plant”.

McKenly, for her part, has written several letters to the authorities asking them to address the matter. She has received no reply.

But last Thursday the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) decided to take on the concerns of residents like McKenly and Ferguson.

The party called a press conference in Portmore, telling the media that residents – who have accused the National Water Commission (NWC) of not maintaining the sewage treatment plants in Bridgeport, Waterford and Independent City – were growing impatient.

Senator Arthur Williams said people who live in the vicinity of the plants, which are currently in a dilapidated state, were not only bothered by the stench from the plants, but were also plagued by pesky mosquitos.

Williams said a team from the St Catherine Health Department that recently visited the treatment plants had painted a damning picture of conditions at the facilities.

“The public health department visited the plant and made a damning report. The public health department served a statutory notice on the National Water Commission to effect the cleaning of the plant in February,” Williams said.

But according to Williams, the NWC said it needed more time to comply.

Yesterday, Charles Buchanan, corporate public relations manager at the NWC, told the Observer that lack of resources has handicapped the NWC’s ability to adequately maintain the sewage treatment plants.

“The NWC has never had the kind of revenue to enable it to upgrade and maintain the infrastructure to meet the highest standard,” Buchanan said, adding that the NWC had spent close to $500 million to improve the treatment plants, including the ones in Portmore,”Buchanan said.

However, Williams, who noted that the treatment plants had not yet been cleaned, said the “situation continues to worsen”.

He claimed that one of the plants had five (treatment) ponds, “but only two are working so that means that they are taking and passing out raw sewage”.

Added Williams: “The NWC must now meet the standard of effluent discharge set by the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA).”

But Buchanan pointed out that the utility company had indicated to both the Office of Utilities Regulations (OUR) and NEPA that it had implemented a schedule within which it would work to meet the standards. He said, however, that in order to meet this schedule, the company had to be relying on the water sewage rates collected from customers who are provided with sewage services.

In other matters, Spanish Town Mayor Andrew Wheatley (councillor for the Naggo Head Division) told reporters that the government had not allotted sufficient funds for the parish councils to effectively repair damage caused by hurricanes last year, and to prepare for this current hurricane season.

Wheatley said it was estimated by the local authorities that more than $3.2 billion worth of damage was caused by hurricanes last year, and that former prime minister P J Patterson had promised the council $300 million.

“However, only a portion of this money was given to the parish council and, as a result, we were unable to repair the damage caused by the hurricanes last year,” Wheatley said.

“I believe the minister (Land and Environment Minister, Dean Peart) is misleading Jamaica because the $300 million represents no new money,” he added.