JACKSON TOWN, Trelawny

Scores of annoyed National Water Commission (NWC) customers served by the Barnstaple treatment plant yesterday staged a massive demonstration in the Jackson Town community to protest the absence of regular piped water since July.

“From July gone we don’t have any water. This problem with this pump is year to year. You have water now and the next time you don’t have any water. My son use the toilet this morning and up to now it no flush. Me throw a little water left from bathing and it not enough to flush it,” one protester expressed, as she pointed to the empty water containers in her yard.

The angry demonstrators – some waving placards – used whatever debris they could find to block sections of the road leading from Jackson Town to Stewart Town and other southern Trelawny communities.

This brought vehicular traffic to a standstill resulting in the marooning of students and workers from the Jackson Town community, a key route to the parish capital, Falmouth.

“The children suffer because they cannot go to school and we cannot go to work,” a distressed mother told the Observer West.

Meanwhile, not only is the over 30-year-old water treatment plant dogged with high levels of turbidity whenever it rains, but the pump is also plagued with frequent mechanical challenges, resulting in regular disruption of water supply to the customers in Grove, Stewart Town, Mahogany Hall, Jackson Town and surrounding communities.

Yesterday one resident recommended that the utility company relocate the Barnstaple pumping station.

“Our pump in Barnstaple needs to be relocated because when rain falls, the pump is covered with water which is damaging the pump. So I think they (NWC) need to relocate it to a better location, a higher place so that when rain falls there will be no problem,” she suggested.

According to one protester, the lack of water in the community was posing a health hazard as there was a recent out break of diarrhoea in the area.

Two water trucks from the Rapid Response Unit were seen delivering water in the area yesterday, but the residents claimed that the water was dirty and that they would only settle for piped water.

Meanwhile, after several hours, a strong contingent of police that was dispatched in the area, managed to clear the blockades.

Yesterday councillor for the Duncans Division, Errol ‘Juppy’ White who visited the troubled community, expressed that the problematic Barnstaple pump was exacerbated by the problems at the archaic Dornoch plant which serves sections in his division.

But according to a NWC release yesterday, water should be returned to the affected areas later today as specialised NWC workers commenced work there yesterday.

“The technical team at the NWC has started to repair the pump and is confident that water will be restored to the affected areas by today,” said the release.

The release further stated: “This regrettable situation came about after the pump at the Barnstaple well developed mechanical problems. Prior to that, the well was among the many other water supply systems in the island affected by high turbidity levels.”