“When the well’s dry, we know the worth of water.” — Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richards Almanac, 1746.

WHILE some of us scoff at hearing about water problems, as we are not affected. Many others, however, get depressed when we turn on our taps and see the water dripping slowly, slowly, and then finally no more.

Instead of adopting the popular nonchalant attitude someone has seen the need to actually investigate the reasons for water scarcity and possible solutions.

Susan Stanley, programmes manager at the Jamaica Environment Trust conducted a study as part of her master’s degree research on water in the corporate area. With this in mind, The US Embassy’s Public Affairs Section, alongside the Jamaica Environment Trust held a panel discussion, on July 26, 2010, to deal with this matter.

With information booths, special speakers, and entertainment, the evening proved to be most organised and educating. Teams such as Eco Works Jamaica Limited displayed gadgets like the Non-Flush Urinal and the ‘Duel Flush Toilet’ to cut back on the amount of water used when flushing. In addition, they displayed the ‘XLERATOR Excel Dryer’, which eliminates the use of paper towels by completely drying a person’s hand in 10 seconds.

Another team, Voices for Climate Change Education Project, focussed on issues related to climate change and the industries most vulnerable to it, such as the Tourism, Health, Insurance and Energy industries.

This two-year long initiative creatively utilises 24 renowned artistes, including Queen Ifrica, Cameal Davis, K’Alee, Lloyd Lovindeer and Tony Rebel, to spread the message through ‘Edu-tainment’.

Stanley was the first speaker of the evening. Her presentation focussed on ‘Urban Water Scarcity in Jamaica’, where she did a case study of Portmore, St Catherine. She concluded that Jamaica was suffering from water poverty, as it is a nation that cannot constantly afford the cost of sustainable clean water to everyone.

This is because of institutional limitations, as regardless of the commercial nature of this utility, subsidies and loans are not provided for continued service. What worsens the situation is not only the fact that the category of water problems is placed low on nation agenda, but also that uneven precipitation plagues our nation.

Her solutions included that we recognise water scarcity as needing important political attention, provide loans for Jamaican citizens, and review the requirements to own a tank.

The next presenter, Professor Gerry Galloway of the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas, informed us on ways to better manage our water. The highly quailed water management specialist started by saying that we, as TEENagers, are the future. Therefore, it will take a lot of energy from us, to make the little change that will rebuild our nation.

He suggested that we should “transform the planning approach” by, among other things, discarding the traditional planning styles due to the fluctuations in weather patterns due to global warming.

In order to bring this to fruition, increased public participation is absolutely necessary. Professor Galloway implored us as TEENs to become a part of the change. Both he and Stanley made it clear that water problems would be worse for us in the future if we did not do something now. It is obvious that it is time to stop waiting on the world to change and actually do something to change it.