COKER, St Elizabeth — Residents of this quiet, farming community have pinned the blame on the sustained absence of piped water in their community for Saturday’s tragedy in which two teenaged girls were swept away in the river where they went to bathe.

Both teens were fished from the body of water, called Coker River, by community folk, four hours apart, yesterday.

The body of Gabriella Madden, 13, was recovered by divers yesterday morning, while that of Madden’s friend, Kahlia Muir, aged 15, was found mid-afternoon.

Sheldon Muir, Kahlia’s grief-stricken father was among the community members who argued that political representative J C Hutchinson, Member of Parliament (MP) for St Elizabeth North Western, should be held accountable for the absence of running water in their community for nearly a decade.

“What basically cause this thing is no water not in the area. Over seven years now no water not in the area. J C Hutchinson is the MP for our constituency… we don’t have no water over seven years. No water! So it force them (children) now to come to the river to bathe because there is no water in the area. Some time when you come down here is like a grand market, because the whole district has to come down here. This is what caused what happened,” the bereaved father asserted.

He added: “This is not the first time there is a drowning because no water don’t in the area. It also happened to a next little boy. To get water to drink we have to buy water from the truck. So the kids are going through a lot up here and so it a force them to come to the river to bathe.”

Scores of irate residents, who yesterday gathered on the banks of the river while divers earnestly searched for the girls, concurred with the view that it is the absence of water from pipes in the community that has been driving them to make regular treks to the river to carry out personal hygiene and domestic tasks.

“We don’t have water for over 10 year and the Member of Parliament and the councillor [Jamaica Labour Party representative for the Lacovia Division George Powell] are supposed to make sure we have water in the area, and they are not doing anything,” one female member of the community claimed.

“If we don’t get any water, more of our children are going to drown here at the river, because we have to come here to get water to wash and bathe.”

But during a telephone interview with the Jamaica Observer, Hutchinson, who conceded that the area has been without water for “up to nine months out of the year” promised to press the National Water Commission (NWC) to speed up his recommendation to the organisation to provide water to the community.

“I would say its nearly nine months out of the year they don’t get water up at Coker. So it’s a challenge with them,” Hutchinson told the Observer.

He lamented that there seems to be inadequate water at a well in the nearby Newton community from which water was pumped to Coker.

He added that he has been suggesting to the NWC that there is a good supply of water over by Revere from which water could be transported in a pipe to Coker.

“As a matter of fact, as of tomorrow [today] I am going to NWC to ask them if they can fast-track our recommendation, because what they are suggesting with the pipes, that I don’t think is going to come through right now. We have other areas in the constituency which is a problem,” the MP noted.

“Coker district is about a mile and a half from Revere. We have been suggesting to the NWC… what they should do is run a pipeline from Revere up to Coker. There is a big NWC tank up at Coker that once you fill that tank you could now gravity feed water right throughout the whole area of Coker going down to Maggotty, pass down to Newton.

“I understand that NWC has an elaborate plan to run pipes to Newton and tie it in, which would be costing over $100 million. Instead of this, we are saying, just run this pipe from Revere up to Coker, where Coker would be able to get water right around the clock,” Hutchinson went on.