LUCEA, Hanover — Describing the National Water Commission (NWC) as a threat to Jamaica’s growth, a strident Lucea Mayor Sheridan Samuels on Thursday led his peers in the Hanover Municipal Corporation (HMC) in a broadside against the water provider.

The barbs were triggered by several businesses being forced to close their doors on Wednesday — the final straw months into a water shortage that has wreaked havoc in sections of western Jamaica. The resort town of Negril, which straddles Hanover and Westmoreland, has been particularly hard hit.

On Thursday, amid questions about whether the NWC’s actions are politically motivated, the Opposition People’s National Party-controlled HMC painted a picture of an inept agency that has the weighty responsibility of supplying the vital commodity.

“Do you know that the biggest threat to the livelihood of this country is NWC and AMH? You are the two biggest threats to the livelihood and growth of this country. I can tell you that,” Mayor Samuels said.

Responding to councillors’ queries about what AMH stands for, he said, “Check it out. Use the middle name.”

The Prime Minster of Jamaica is Andrew Michael Holness.

Also, during the meeting, Councillor Daren Barnes (PNP, Riverside Division) questioned why in the days leading up to the February 26 local government election there had been no interruption in the water supply.

“Two days before the election, all the pipes from Kew, Mount Price, Clifton back to Middlesex, everywhere was leaking. It was the first I saw so much water,” stated Barnes, who intimated that this was a ploy to sway voters.

However, the NWC’s manager for Hanover and Westmoreland, Nicholas Campbell insisted that the agency was above the fray of partisan politics.

“Water has no colour. It is neither green nor orange. NWC is NWC. We have nothing to do with politics. We are supplying water to everyone,” he said.

On Thursday all seven councillors expressed concern about the water crisis in the parish.

“Do you know that the fire brigade is doing better than you? Do you know that the NSWMA (National Solid Waste Management Authority) is doing better than you,” Mayor Samuels chided Campbell.

Responding to questions raised, Campbell said there were two NWC trucks assigned to Hanover, one belonging to the commission and the other contracted. He also noted that, while the Great River Treatment Plant which supplies Hopewell, Sandy Bay, and Lucea has had issues for the past two weeks, the system was back up on Thursday. He said a power outage was among the causes of the problem.

The NWC rep also spoke of steps that had been taken to alleviate the water shortage on Wednesday, including trucking supplies to the police station, the tax office, the hospital, and high schools.

An unimpressed Deputy Mayor Andria Dehaney Grant said the parish is at crisis stage.

“I don’t know how the NWC looks at it, but I have seen [drier] days than this and we have never seen this level of lack of water in this parish,” she said.

She suggested that Westmoreland should be fully supplied from its own water sources, which would reduce the strain on the systems in Hanover.

“Our people in Hanover have no water. Westmoreland has a whole lot of water down there. You all need to put something in place to let Westmoreland get their own treatment plant to serve their parish,” argued Dehaney Grant.

Campbell later explained that an issue with the Kew Pumping Station has impacted several communities. The Kew station gets its supply from the Great River Treatment Plant.

“In order to sustain water in this area, the pump has to be automated, and in order for it to be automated we need an operation tank to start the pump as soon as the water is there, instead of us being there to manually start it each time,” he said, adding that the tank will be installed by the end of this month.

Campbell also told the meeting that Logwood Treatment Plant in Hanover — which supplies a large section of that parish and sections of Westmoreland, including Negril — was down to 45 per cent of its capacity in April. As a result, the commission has implemented regulating measures.

Other water supply systems in the parish that are affected by drought are New Milns and Kendal, which are operating at 60 per cent of their capacity. There are also challenges in Paradise and Shettlewood.

Hanover and Westmoreland are currently experiencing drought. Hanover’s rainfall is now at 50 per cent below its 20-year average.

In April, acting NWC President Kevin Kerr told a press briefing that the commission would be embarking on a maintenance exercise aimed at de-silting pipelines so that more water could be sent from the Great River Water Treatment Plant (near the St James border) into Hanover. He said the activity would allow for one million gallons per day to be sent into Green Island. Kerr said that would allow the Logwood Treatment Plant to send more water into sections of Westmoreland including Whitehall, Red Ground, and Negril.