SHERWOOD CONTENT, Trelawny

The Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) Fernandez ‘Bingie’ Smith is threatening to cripple the entire National Water Commission (NWC) distribution system in western Jamaica with a massive protest if he doesn’t get an audience with the Minister of Water and Housing Dr Horace Chang and top-tier NWC personnel to address the water woes of Sherwood Content.

“If we don’t have audience within a reasonable time frame with Dr Chang, Russell Haddeed and EG Hunter to put into effect the 1987 Keith Russell plan, we are going to close down the NWC network in western Jamaica with a massive protest,” he threatened.

According to Smith, Councillor for the Sherwood Division, which includes Sherwood Content, the hometown of Olympic Champion Usain Bolt, in 1987 former North Trelawny MP Keith Russell proposed the linking of the nearby Duanvale water supply to pipelines in Sherwood Content.

Smith estimated that water lines from the Duanvale water supply stop a mere mile from the Sherwood community.

“That water can be sourced from the three systems in Duanvale which has a combined capacity of one million gallons per day. Any efficient pump can pump the water over the 10 degree gradient in Piedmont district, which falls between Sherwood and Duanvale,” he said.

Last week Wellesley Bolt, father of Usain Bolt disclosed that his son had to cut his Christmas visit a day short after a lack of piped water forced him to make a four-mile trek to Windsor River for a bath.

Days later the police had to rescue the driver and sideman of the Trelawny Parish Council’s water truck after angry residents of Sherwood Content locked them into the community to register their discontent with the situation.

This week Smith vowed to keep up the pressure.

“With this protest I will be putting on the line, my membership within the Jamaica Labour Party, my political career and my own freedom,” he added.