MILE GULLY, Manchester — Member of Parliament (MP) for Manchester North Western Mikael Phillips says this-south central parish’s supply of water has not progressed sufficiently and is affecting its growth.

“Manchester is in a crisis when it comes to water. The investment and the expansion of Manchester, the infrastructure is not keeping a pace with it. This is not to blame one Government or another,” he said on Friday.

“Manchester has not kept pace with the investment [and] expansion of just the parish itself and the town of Mandeville,” added Phillips.

The Opposition MP in addressing an opening ceremony for a water shop in Mile Gully, said the town was once the hub for Manchester before Mandeville was developed.

He told his audience, consisting of Local Government Minister Desmond McKenzie and councillors from the Manchester Municipal Corporation, that the lack of piped potable water was affecting the growth of Mile Gully.

“We have no water. We have a high school. We have a primary school. We have four basic schools. We have a health centre, a police station. The cost to bring water (in Mile Gully) when I became MP was about $250 million. If I am to ask or add inflation to it, you’re talking about half a billion dollars now,” he said.

“We are supposed to get a new high school, and one of the hindrances for the construction of that high school is to have running water and up to now I can’t even see it even at the light at the end of the tunnel where that running water will be coming from,” added Phillips.

Phillips, while lauding McKenzie for allocating funding for the $14-million Mile Gully Water Shop, said that only 30 per cent of Northwest Manchester has potable water.

“This water shop is important to the surrounding communities, not only to those in the Mile Gully Division, but those also in the Jones Hall division which is just the other side of the town itself,” he said.

“Only 30 per cent of Northwest Manchester has potable water. The communities of Comfort Hall and Evergreen have one of the largest water tables in Manchester, more than Porus, gets its water from St Elizabeth. About four months going into five months now, we haven’t had water down there. The pump at Union keeps breaking down. The other section of the constituency, the Mandeville area, will get water from Porus or from St Elizabeth down in Pepper inconsistent. The hills of Huntley where the water will come and stop, get water probably two or three days a week,” added Phillips.

McKenzie, in responding to Phillips’s comments, assured that the Andrew Holness-led administration has been focused on expanding water supply.

“…The Government has been working to improve the water supply systems across the country, not just by means of putting in water shops, but to make communities accessible to the service provided by the National Water Commission,” said McKenzie.

“We can’t just snap our fingers and the problems are solved overnight, but every step that we take is a step in the right direction,” he added.

McKenzie said the Mile Gully Water Shop has a capacity of 16,000 gallons of water. He warned residents not to allow the water shop to be used for commercial purposes.

“… They use it to establish car wash. They use it for farming and the one that is more disgusting than anything else is that they drive up and they load drums of water and go and sell it to people,” he said.

“This is not something that we are going to tolerate. In one particular parish, we have already caught two of the culprits red-handed,” he added.

McKenzie also toured another water shop being constructed in the Manchester Northwestern area of Somerset.

He added that four additional water shops have been budgeted for Manchester in the upcoming financial year.