An overflow of raw sewage onto the streets and into people’s yards has sparked outrage among residents of Rae Town who fear for their health and are fuming at the disruption is has caused to their livelihoods.

When the Jamaica Observer visited the community in Kingston’s eastern end on Friday, the overpowering stench of effluent was unmistakable on approaching Water Street.

Residents, on seeing the news team, did not hesitate to vent their frustration, sharing that the overflow from a sewage main started on Sunday morning, resulting in most of the filthy water forming a sort of pool at the intersection of Water Street and Fishers Row.

“Even right now talking to you I feel like I want to vomit. I feel sick much less the young baby dem who live around here and I have a two-year-old baby in my house,” said one resident who declined to be named.

Another resident, Nickie Wood, who lives directly beside the areas mostly affected, showed the Observer her yard flooded with the waste water.

Wood operates a shop attached to her premises. She said she has had to close the business since Sunday due to the terrible odour and difficulty getting to the shop, which is her only source of income.

“I sell like bread and grocery stuff and that’s why I can’t open the shop because the smell is a big issue. Right now mi buy bread last Saturday and I can’t even sell it because of the scent that is coming in; I have to either eat it or just give my mother,” she said.

“Right now it all a get to me [and] I feel stressed out because is the shop feed me and is it feed my mother too,” she explained.

Her shop is not the only one affected.

“My sister also has her shop around the other side and my mother too, and they cannot open their shops. My mother sell like bleach and fab soap and she cannot open either, so that means is three shops cannot open right now because of this,” Wood complained.

She also raised health concerns for her and her four children, including two babies aged one and two years old.

“We normally keep the grass in the yard low and because of all of this we can’t get the yard cut because nobody is going to work in this, not even a madman going to work in this. I just have to make the yard stay as it is until it dry up,” Wood said.

Her next door neighbour, Landel Thompson, more commonly known to residents as Ratty, was fearful that if the situation is not dealt with soon his yard, too, will be flooded by the sewage water.

“A next door mi live, and it probably soon reach me as well; it’s only a matter of time, and even for those who may not be in danger of it coming into their homes, everybody is affected because of the stench and all of these things,” he said.

Thompson said he had contacted two representatives of the National Water Commission (NWC) about the issue and received contrasting responses.

“I get to understand that it’s a blame game because you have two set a man who do the work — the one who deal with the manhole and the one who deals with the pump house over there. I talked to both of them and it just feels like a blame game thing,” he said.

Thompson said the representative who handles the manhole issues visited the community earlier this week and, after his assessment, determined that the problem was caused by a blockage at the Rae Town Pumping Station.

“He went over by the pump house and told me straight up that the pump house is the issue because there is no light in there and that’s a problem,” Thompson told the Observer.

However, he said that the other NWC representative told him that nothing is wrong with the pumping station.

But when the Observer visited the facility, the drain was clogged with garbage and what appeared to be stagnant sewage water.

Another resident, Richard Manning, who said he is vice-president of the Rae Town Fishing Village, argued that the problem is not new, claiming that it happens whenever there is a blockage at the pumping station.

“You see like when rain fall, every now and then it occur. The father for this is at the pump house; when that pump house block and the pump block up, everything feedback to right here,” he said.

He appealed to the authorities to urgently address the matter, while admitting that going forward residents should be more responsible with the disposal of their garbage.