COUNCILLOR Jesse James Clarke (People’s National Party, Trafalgar Division) has charged that the National Water Commission (NWC) could be hiding water testing results from the public for the months of March and April. However, the water management agency is insisting that Clarke’s accusation is unfounded.

Clarke, the Opposition’s junior shadow spokesman on health and wellness and chairman of the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC) Public Health and Sanitation Committee, told the Jamaica Observer that the NWC failed to send a representative to the latest meeting of the committee.

He further charged that a report which was sent to the committee from the NWC did not contain any water-testing results, as they normally do.

“We are calling on them to make public the findings of the most recent testing that has been done at water treatment sites, and make it public, and to also submit the report to the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation’s Public Health and Sanitation Committee. We didn’t get an excuse, and there shouldn’t be any excuse. The testing was done and we need the results,” Clarke insisted.

He stated that the usual procedure when representatives of the NWC are going to be absent from important committee meetings is that they would submit a reason for their inability to attend.

But responding to questions from the Observer, the NWC said no representative was at the recent meeting of the KSAMC committee due to unforeseen challenges.

According to the NWC, its team normally carries out and follows up on action items recorded at the meetings of the committee.

The NWC said a formal communiqué is being prepared for submission to the KSAMC which will outline several matters of concern to the commission.

“We wish to highlight that the NWC has no aversion to sharing any of its reports. The concern lies in ensuring the reports are presented in the correct manner,” the NWC said in a written response to the Observer.

But that has not satisfied Clarke who charged that the testing results are overdue.

“I think they are trying to suppress the public knowing about the results,” argued Clarke.

He said he wants people living in communities near NWC water treatment sites to show journalists what the sites look like so journalists can get an idea of the scope of work that needs to be done as far as putting in place proper water filtration systems is concerned.

“Also, there needs to be proper storage tanks for water to pass through so that it can have enough contact time with chlorine,” said Clarke.

“We want the journalists to go to all of these rural water sites, especially, so they see the conditions and see what needs to be done, so we don’t have a case where the information stops flowing from NWC and the Government. We want the journalists to go and have a look and to press the NWC to make the results public for these rural water treatment sites,” added Clarke.