ST MARY, Jamaica— Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, Senator Pearnel Charles Jr, is assuring residents of St Mary that they will have increased access to water supply before year end.

He said that the Government, through Rural Water Supply Limited (RWSL), will be undertaking work to increase storage capacity in order to alleviate the water shortage being faced across various communities.

He was speaking after a tour of four RWSL supply systems in the parish on Thursday, to assess the volumes of water available as a result of recent rainfall, which followed droughts conditions in sections of the island.

The systems are Gibbs Hill, Maroon Town, Top Leinster, and Platfield.  Engineers and other officials from the RWSL were on hand to conduct assessments.

“On this tour, we have had the benefit of visiting a number of places and looking into the water sources and how we are going to get water to all of the people in Platfield, Clarks, Mount Vernon and other places around,” Charles Jr said.

“This Government is more concerned about results than we are about talking about things and so my focus is on solutions and getting it done,” he added.

The residents welcomed the visit by the minister and the assurance given that their water challenges will be alleviated shortly.

“I am happy the minister came and spoke with us,” said Dorothy Morgan of Top Leinster. “That is encouraging. We can see where he is making an effort to ensure that we have water that we can access,” she told JIS News.

Lance Brown of Platfield said he too is pleased about the Government’s intervention to address the water shortage.

“With the minister saying that he will look into having better catchment in our community, I feel much better. I know that water will be in a tank and so we in the hills can access it,” he said.

-JIS