KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Patriots, an affiliate of the People’s National Party (PNP), is calling on Member of Parliament (MP) for West Rural St Andrew Juliet Cuthbert-Flynn and Councillor Rohan Hall to address the water woes of the more than 200 residents in the informal settlement of Mount Zion in the Red Hills Division.

The call from the Patriots comes after a recent attempt by PNP candidate, Jennifer Housen, to have a resident of the area supply water from her National Water Commission (NWC) main to other residents.

However, Housen was stopped in her tracks after the NWC launched an investigation into her “community project” after a letter urging residents to make a contribution towards the project surfaced on social media.

The NWC, on its Twitter page, last Monday said that “no arrangements have been made to facilitate this project and the Commission does not undertake improvement works in this manner.”

According to the Patriots, in a release today, a visit by a delegation led by President Omar Newell has revealed that the routine trucking of water to the area, which took place under the leadership of Paul Buchanan and Otis Hamilton, was discontinued after the change of administration in February 2016.

“Because of the failure of the state and its agents to provide this basic need to the more than 200 Jamaican’s living in Mount Zion, including babies, lactating mothers and the elderly, the community had to take matters in their own hands,” noted Newell.

He added that, “a good Samaritan in the community offered to assist the community by allowing them to extend her NWC metered water supply into the community by way of a standpipe.”

“Instead of making representation to determine how piped water can be legally made available to the community, the MP and Councillor (Hall) used the opportunity for cheap political points scoring,” Newell argued.