WILLIAMSFIELD, Manchester — A councillor in this south-central parish is calling on the Government to allocate funds for the trucking of water due to a shortage of the precious commodity caused by drought-like conditions.

Councillor Mario Mitchell (People’s National Party, Bellefield Division) said the parish, which depends heavily on rainwater harvesting, is seeing the early signs of drought.

“Since about late November, early December we haven’t had any rain and we seem to now have taken on a dry spell and the drought is upon us. There are water shortages in Manchester itself, so I am asking the relevant authorities to see how best they can assist the residents of Manchester and to alleviate the plight that is there,” Mitchell said on Sunday.

“I am asking the relevant stakeholders the minister [Matthew Samuda] and Prime Minister [Andrew Holness] to see if they can allocate some funds for the trucking of water. Right now I have basic schools, the primary schools calling seeking assistance, so I know this upcoming week the Members of Parliament and the councillors are going to need to give assistance to schools, health facilities and police stations,” added Mitchell who made the appeal following a fire near the Jam Island Processing Company in Williamsfield, Manchester, on Sunday.

“I am making an urgent plea to the minister for the trucking of water to Manchester and even St Elizabeth and wherever else the country may be experiencing this drought spell,” he said.

Efforts to get a comment on the fire from the Jamaica Fire Brigade were unsuccessful as calls to the Manchester fire chief went unanswered up to mid-afternoon on Sunday. However, the Jamaica Observer was told that the fire was contained quickly by firefighters.

The greater Mandeville area has water shortfall to the tune of millions of gallons, with most of the life-giving liquid being expensively pumped from wells on the plains of neighbouring St Elizabeth.

The Pepper well field, downslope at low altitude in St Elizabeth, is the main source of water for Mandeville, which is more than 2,000 feet above sea level, atop the Manchester Plateau.

Mandeville, and surrounding communities, have struggled with water shortages for decades, with town elders insisting that the problem has hindered growth.

Many households in Manchester, and the wider south-central Jamaica, have to rely on rainwater harvesting.

The long-standing issue of water supply has not only affected households, but commerce, with businesses suffering from the inconsistency in the supply of the precious commodity.

Samuda has promised that the Holness Administration will utilise solar energy to reduce the high cost of pumping water uphill to Mandeville.

He has repeatedly pointed to investment being made in the Greater Mandeville Water Supply Improvement Project as the remedy for the issues facing residents of t5hat town.

“The reality is, in the Mandeville water improvement programme, the Government, between last year and four years from now, will invest $2.3 billion in ensuring that [the people of] Mandeville receive water reliably in their pipes for over 23 hours a day, which is the global standard,” said Samuda in December 2022.

He noted that water in Manchester is primarily “bedevilled” by the price of energy and pointed put that the parish is the second-highest consumer of electricity for the National Water Commission (NWC).

“It is impatient of debate that to fix the water issue in Manchester we have to fix the energy issues in Jamaica. It is why it is our articulated ambition for Jamaica, by 2030, to ensure that 50 per cent of our energy production comes from renewables,” said Samuda.