RESIDENTS of sections of Duhaney Park in St Andrew who were without piped water for five days had services restored yesterday, but not until after they took to the streets to protest.

The National Water Commission (NWC) was quick to respond to the pleas of residents, some of whom blocked the intersection of Duhaney Drive and the top of Baldwin Crescent during yesterday’s protest.

Michael Dunn, NWC vice-president, operations, who arrived in the community just before noon, told the residents that their water supply would be restored within an hour.

“They will have water later, and you can verify that if you wish,” Dunn told the Jamaica Observer. The promise was kept.

Minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation Senator Pearnel Charles Jr also visited Duhaney Park to speak with the residents.

“We want water! We want water!” residents shouted as the minister alighted from his motor vehicle.

In an attempt to reassure the residents that the issue would be resolved, a soft-spoken Charles told them that he wanted to know what the issue was so that it could be rectified.

“We want water!” an irate resident shouted.

“None a mi pickney dem nuh go a school,” another resident shouted.

“Hold on, hold on. This is the minister of water and we nuh have nuh water but everybody can’t talk one time,” a man, who was standing across the road when the minster arrived, told the protesters.

By this time the residents asked Charles Jr to visit the community that they claimed had been neglected.

“Come round deh come look how the road stay – a bare mud; and we garbage pile up. Come and look,” one woman said.

The residents told the Observer that Little Folks Basic School in the community was closed due to the lack of water.

“I want you to guide me as to what the issues are so I can have a discussion with the agencies,” Charles Jr told the residents.

“I want to see the areas you are talking about; we are going to do it in an orderly way. I am here because I represent you, and I want that to be clear. I want to be fully aware of what the issues are. I am willing to come,” he said before he was escorted to the intersection of Brooke and Maynard Avenues where they complained that an NWC contractor left the road in a deplorable state following the repair of a sewer system five months ago.

Dunn, while noting that repairs to the sewerage main had nothing to do with the absence of water, said asphalt would be laid on the affected section of the road in short order.