COUNCILLORS in Clarendon are bemoaning the severe impact current drought conditions are having on the parish and have charged that one water truck is not enough, neither is the $6-million allocation to pay for trucking water.

“Mr Chairman, $30,000 cannot truck a load of water. It cannot. I have to get a truck from Crofts Hill to truck water to Aenon Town. We need to look at the situation when we are making decisions like these and look at the needs of the parish — and not just to share up some money because we get some money,” argued Councillor Delroy Dawson (People’s National Party, Aenon Town Division).

According to Dawson, some communities in Aenon Town such as Johns Hall have had no water since December last year.

He also listed Longbough, Gayle Town, Morgan’s Forrest, Bog Hole and Anderson Town as some of the areas in his division without water.

“It is very, very hard on us as councillors. I don’t think the Member of Parliament (MP) should get any of that money because the MP is not the first responder to the citizens in this water crisis — it’s us councillors.

“The allocation has come to the council, and the areas I represent have a lot of minor water supply systems yet allocations are being given to areas that are supplied by the National Water Commission [NWC], and I think that is unfair to the councillors who really have [to face the] demand for water. We need to pay serious attention to how we look at this trucking of water. We have to look at the areas that are really, really in need,” stressed Dawson.

Scean Barnswell (PNP, Hayes Division) shared the plight of his counterpart from Aenon Town.

“I listen to my colleague and you can hear the distress and the dire need in his voice. I listen to Councillor Williams and he said one water truck cannot help, and I do agree with him.

“When I learnt of the state of the parish because of the drought and that only $6 million came to the municipal corporation for the trucking of water, I was disappointed. I don’t see why MPs should get money for trucking of water when only two entities are responsible for water in the country: the NWC to truck water to residents and the municipality for minor water supplies,” argued Barnswell.

“When I heard the minister say the MPs have resources at their disposal, I wonder to myself: ‘What resources do they have at their disposal?’ It’s a backward step when we give money, for example, to the MP in Northern Clarendon to supply water to the same 10 or 12 communities that Councillor Dawson supposed to supply to. It’s like spending money doing the same thing two times,” Barnswell reasoned.

He further explained that some MPs send their allocation to the municipal corporation (MC) then send a list detailing the amount of water each community should get.

“If that money is sent to the MC, the councillors along with the minor water supply officer can sit and work out a programme to get water to the people. Ten loads of water for 12 communities is a drop in the bucket so we have to look at how we spend the little that we have. Clarendon cannot be one of the hardest-hit parishes in terms of drought and we’re being treated the way we are,” added Barnswell.

In the meantime, Joel Williams (Jamaica Labour Party, Denbigh Division) told Thursday’s meeting of the municipal corporation that the issue of water has always been a burning one.

“If you check, every councillor has areas within their division that have no water. I believe the parish of Clarendon has water but we have never sat down as a collective body to see how best we can distribute this water across the parish.

“We come here every year during this period and we complain that we don’t have enough water to distribute. I believe we must stop approving houses unless we know where we’re getting the water from; if we don’t do that we will be burdening ourselves more. I am asking again for a collective meeting of the bodies, and let us spend the day and figure out where we will get the water from,” suggested Williams.

“I hear my colleague talk about one water truck. One water truck can’t suffice; one water truck can’t help this parish. Mr Chairman, there’s no way one water truck can help the 22 councillors in here. We need much more. We will have to collectively find where those sources are and utilise them to the best of our ability,” added Williams as he argued that greater management needs to be taken where the already scarce resource is concerned.