Treasure Beach, St Elizabeth

Hoteliers in Treasure Beach, St Elizabeth say scheduled water lock-offs by the National Water Commission (NWC), especially on weekends, are seriously inconveniencing their guests.

“It’s affecting us badly. Naturally, my guests are not happy,” said Yvonne Clarke, manager of Jakes Resort at Calabash Bay.

Clarke said water lock-offs are scheduled during the dry season, but the frequency of such lock-offs on weekends, when most of their guests are inhouse, has caused serious problems.

“They need to leave it on the weekend and then let us know, which days in the week it will be off,” she argued. “Our businesses can’t survive when we don’t have water on the weekends, we are running an operation where this is essential.”

Kory South, who runs the neighbouring Sunset Resorts, said that coupled with the bad road conditions, the water situation is just unbearable. “The guests can’t take a shower. They can’t flush the toilet,” South complained. “They have completed disregarded everything about Treasure Beach,” he added, pointing out that work had still not started on the road although a contract was signed in November last year.

But according to Lisa Golding of the NWC, these scheduled water lock-offs are necessary in that part of the parish, which has a dense farming population and very little rain at this time of year. This, she said, is done so that all the residents can get water.

“That has always been the case,” she told the Observer West. “There is a dense farming population and everybody has to have access to water. The water is usually locked off in one area so people in another area can get water.”

She said these lock-offs are scheduled and residents are advised of them. Furthermore, she notes that a pending improvement to the water supply system should provide some reprieve in the area, but that until then the business owners are advised to have a stored water system.

In addition, she said residents could request water, which will be trucked to them as long as the NWC is notified.