DISTURBED by a woman’s tumble into foul-smelling water in a rugged drain behind a bus stop on Dawkins Drive in Portmore, St Catherine, on Friday June 13, Member of Parliament (MP) Robert Miller has renewed his plea for measures to be implemented to protect people who travel in the area.

Miller, the MP for St Catherine South Eastern, has also called on the responsible agency to determine the source of the water — which appears at regular intervals — to determine the source of the problem and provide a permanent fix.

“I had written to the National Works Agency (NWA) for them to evaluate the state of the canal. The reality is that the canal needs to be a concrete structure — right now it is just mud and dirt.

“I wrote to the NWA about two years ago to do an assessment of this particular gully — because it stems from Portsmouth, all the way to the toll area — and something needs to be done in terms of concreting it to ensure that it is not a hazard to persons, like what transpired with the lady last week,” Miller said on Thursday during an interview with the Jamaica Observer at his constituency office, metres from the foul-smelling water.

“All I can say to the citizens is to be careful. In that area at nights, it is very dark so persons might not see or know that a canal is here. Those things, as Government, we have to put in place to ensure that we protect our citizens as best as possible.

“I would beseech the municipal corporation to put measures in place to ensure the welfare and safety of our citizens is well taken care of. I will play my part to ensure whatever I can do from central government in terms of lobbying, I am more than willing to assist the municipal corporation in getting that gully concreted and putting in rails… or a covering to ensure we protect our citizens,” Miller said, adding that he hopes to contact the woman who fell into the water last week.

On the day of the incident the woman told the Observer that the water was “so stink” and she felt so ashamed after the fall.

She said after she emerged from the body of water a woman, who she did not know, sought to cheer her up and wash her off.

According to the woman, who is domestic helper, she has been off the job since then as she sustained an injury from a glass bottle when she fell into the water.

“I can’t go to work for now because I can’t wear any shoes. I am a domestic helper and I had to call in and tell my supervisor that I fell into dirty water and got a cut on my foot,” she said last week.

On Thursday, Miller described the situation as untenable. He accepted that it is a health hazard, and said he would not want a disease outbreak to occur in his constituency as a result of the problem.

“The reality is that the constituency is plagued with sewage issues, and I know the minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation Matthew Samuda is dealing with the sewage issue. He came and toured the facility, but to have sewage escaping into our gullies is untenable and cannot continue.

“We just want the entities responsible to do a thorough investigation to come and find out if, in fact, it is sewage. From the odour, it appears to be sewage. I might be wrong but in my layman idea of what sewage is, it looks like sewage, smells like sewage, so chances are it is sewage,” said Miller.

However, he acknowledged that he could be wrong. “I am not competent in that area. The public health entities would have to come and do their own investigations because the stench coming from the gully is unbearable. To the best of my knowledge it is really coming from a business complex near my office,” charged Miller.

He added that while it is the responsibility of the Portmore Municipal Corporation to clean the canal, he partnered with a businessman in the area to have the canal cleaned in the past.

“I have cleaned this particular gully repeatedly, and even at the start of this year a businessman who has property on the stretch has always been complaining about the stench coming from the gully. He contacted me and paid his own resources to clean the gully around February or March this year.

“He paid to clean it, and I got some workers for him — he had been contacting me for quite some time. I told him that it is really the jurisdiction of the local authority and, when I can, I will always try to clean it as best as possible. I have always done that, especially during the Christmas time when we would get mitigation [money] from the Government,” Miller said.

According to Miller, he has brought the issue to the attention of the local government representative for the area so that he could take it to the municipal corporation to trigger the health team to investigate the matter.

“I have not heard anything about it since making contact around March or April of this year.

Member of Parliament for St Catherine South Eastern Robert Miller explaining his concerns about an open canal on Dawkins Drive in the constituency.