LINSTEAD, St Catherine — Member of Parliament for St Catherine North Western, Hugh Graham has called on residents to stop blocking roads in Linstead, adding that he is only willing to address them in an amicable atmosphere about plans to attend to their call for better roads and a reliable water supply.

“I do not speak to demonstrators; I believe we are a civilised place and we need to have conversations. When they are finished demonstrating, then we can talk,” he told the Jamaica Observer. “Talking to demonstrators in this atmosphere, I don’t know that any fruit will be borne… We are already severely affected by the [novel] coronavirus and the loss in productivity, and to block roads — maybe even for an important thing as water — to me is inexcusable.”

Several placard-bearing residents, mainly from the Orangefield district in Linstead, started to protest at the crack of dawn on yesterday against the deplorable road conditions and the lack of potable water in their community.

They converged at the entrance to Jericho and Orangefield districts, and blocked that section of the major thoroughfare which connect the towns of Linstead and Ewarton. The roadblock resulted in a major pile-up of vehicles with several commuters being left stranded.

“We want road! We want road! We want water!” the protesters chanted, adding that they have waited long enough for the authorities to address their concerns.

“Some of us have to carry a container to work for little water [and] take it home so that we can have a bath to go to work,” said one of the protestors, a teacher from Orangefield.

“You have hundreds of civil servants living in the community; we are paying taxes just like everybody else… We have a well in our community. How can you be sitting on a well and we have no access to the water that is in the well? The water is being diverted elsewhere. We are dying, we are literally dying! [There] is a pandemic and, if you don’t have water, then this is going to fuel the pandemic. It means that we are a set of people that nobody cares about and it needs to stop!” she exclaimed.

Graham has given a commitment to host a post-protest meeting with the residents and representatives of State agencies such as the National Water Commission (NWC) and the National Works Agency.

He explained that Orangefield is among communities that will benefit from a major water infrastructure project being undertaken by the NWC.

“The NWC has a project of 300 million [gallons] for two years, and that project, as I understand it, should be done in four phases, two of which have already been completed. That project should give Orangefield, among other areas, piped water,” he added. “The issue that the residents are experiencing is that the old pumps that are there now don’t have enough head pressure to push the water up to Orangefield. The water is on the way going to Orangefield and can’t really get there. The new project, with new pumps, should be able to deliver the water to Orangefield square. That’s my understanding from the NWC, which is at a stage of switchover now from the old system to the new system. As they say, it is anytime now.”

He also gave an update on plans to address residents’ concern about the roads.

“The instruction and information is to not address the road until they (NWC) have finished with the water [project] because they might have to lay new pipelines and all of that. So it might be pointless in fixing the road and have them dig it again to lay pipes… I think the issue is a resolvable matter,” he asserted.

Graham stressed that he, as member of parliament, does not readily have funds available for road repairs. “We get $20 million for CDF (Constituency Development Fund). Within that $20 million, there is mandatory amount of money for education, welfare and sport. So, there is actually a prescribed way of spending that money. Road infrastructure is not a part of it; that is squarely in central government. So if roads are to be fixed a member of parliament can only lobby, because there is no resource in the hands of a member of parliament to fix roads.”