‘The stench is unbearable’
OCHO RIOS, St Ann — Councillor Carlton Ricketts (Jamaica Labour Party, Dry Harbour Division) has called out a company which he said has failed to fix a two-year-old problem at the treatment plant at Belle Air housing development in Runaway Bay, St Ann.
According to Ricketts, he is concerned as there are plans to add another 150 houses in the area which will only make the problem worse.
Ricketts voiced his concerns during last Thursday’s regular monthly meeting of the St Ann Municipal Corporation.
“The Belle Air treatment plant is in a terrible state and it cannot continue like this. I went there on Sunday and the effluent is coming up on the road. The stench is unbearable, so I’m saying that this cannot continue like this,” said Ricketts.
He told the meeting that the company which designed the infrastructure, had already been given an extension when it asked for more time to correct the issue.
“It has been over two years and the plant is not working. They said that we should have given them six months to get the plant up and running and they haven’t done anything,” he said.
“This new development on stream is going to put more pressure on the system and it simply cannot continue. Nothing is being done to fix the already existing issues with the sewage plant. Right now the effluent is [flowing] into a stream that is used by members in the community to wash their cars and for other purpose which I’m not sure of. This has to be fixed because it is a serious matter,” Ricketts added.
Chief public health inspector for the parish, Leroy Scott, said steps taken by developers to correct the issue were temporary and he is awaiting formal documentation about what will be done moving forward.
“The solutions tried already will not result in any long-term fix so we really need for the plant to be put into proper operation. We got commitment from them in November of last year asking for a six-month period to commission the plant and have NWC [National Water Commission] operate it, but we have not seen any work started yet and we have not gotten any official update as to what is causing the delay,” Scott told the meeting.
