MANCHESTER, Jamaica — Councillor for the Bellefield Division in Manchester, Mario Mitchell, is urging members of the public to desist from venturing into the groundwater which continues to rise at a section of the Content main road in Manchester.

He claimed that a truck driver narrowly escaped plunging into the water as the vehicle was stopped by sandbags on Thursday.

“There was an accident there at 5:30 am. A trailer was travelling there and is the sandbags that stopped it. [The driver] said he didn’t know that water was rising there and we put barriers out by the roundabout and people continue to move it every day saying they want to go there to go live and take pictures,” said Mitchell.

The rising water has sparked interest for curious onlookers who visit the area as Mitchell said there are reports of people even swimming in the water.

He raised health concerns as he claimed the water is contaminated.

“The water has covered most of the houses over there, it has never been like that before. I had to go down there myself and move out the first three people with my personal vehicle,” he said at Thursday’s sitting of the Manchester Municipal Corporation.

“There is a sinkhole there… I see people dig a trench next door to say they running off the water, because if there is water underground there and you move the water it comes back to the same place… The aquifer is full,” he added.

He said the area has become an attraction.

“I asked people not to go in the area, it is a festive place where sound down there a play, jerk pan with jerk chicken and people a sell rum and boom and everybody wants to make it an exciting affair,” said Mitchell.

“When it started I made a public plea to say to persons do not come in contact with the water. There are graves there. There are old pits and latrines and people say how the water pretty, because it is green and nice and whatever the case is. I got somebody to come and test the water and it showed that the water is contaminated at a significant level,” added Mitchell.

He said he is awaiting a plan from the National Works Agency (NWA) as to the alternative route should the water be extended to the Kendal main road.

“It is just a wait-and-see. The people don’t know what to do… The water is now rising on [the other side], it is also rising in Porus and Evergreen,” he said.

“The water is also rising in front of the old bauxite plant. Content is already blocked. The other route that brings the people to the northern side of the parish, Christiana and Spalding, when that route is blocked, I called the NWA to ask what is the plan?,” he added.

“What is it that we are going to do?…There is not a plan in place,” Mitchell said.

He blamed bauxite mining for the issue now affecting the area.

“We have bauxite [mining] which has affected us for the past 50, 60 years and has created a problem which we can’t solve at this moment,” he said.

— Kasey Williams