PORT MARIA, St Mary — After months of pleading for attention to be given to the decrepit and unsanitary condition of a water source provided by St Mary Municipal Corporation, Councillor Hugh Bryan (Jamaica Labour Party [JLP], Annotto Bay Division) has warned that he will not take responsibility if residents become seriously ill.

“Each time I come to council meetings or the infrastructure meetings, I bring up this situation and no one can give me an answer,” Bryan complained during Tuesday’s meeting of the corporation’s infrastructure committee.

Mayor of Port Maria Fitzroy Wilson commiserated and said he, too, was disappointed but had no solution to offer.

The municipal catchment at New Road in Enfield has become a talking point on social media. The wooden chlorination shed is collapsing, the door hangs on a rotted hinge and a cracked manhole sits half open, providing easy access for frogs, leaves and debris. Residents say the water is unfit to drink.

A broken manhole cover at St Mary Municipal Corporation’s water catchment in Enfield. (Photo: Ingrid Henry)

On Tuesday, Councillor Mitsy Hudson-Hicks (JLP, Hampstead Division) backed Bryan and questioned the lack of urgency in dealing with the issue.

“If the persons who are in charge were affected by this, their move to action would be different. Remember it is the councillor who would be blamed if anything eventually happens,” she chimed in.

“Who gave residents permission to clean up the area of the chlorination house? This is not like patching roads [which] residents can do as a project. This is people’s life. Suppose there is tampering of the water supply, what would we say? He [Bryan] needs an update at the fastest time to know what is the process to move forward,” a concerned Hicks continued.

The deplorable state of the chlorination house at St Mary Municipal Corporation’s water catchment area in New Road at Enfield. (Photo: Ingrid Henry)

Residents complain that the catchment area is not being maintained and the caretaker lacks basic tools such as a machete to clear shrubbery. Sixty-seven-year-old Shirley Leon told the Jamaica Observer she and others offered to de-bush the area as a Labour Day project but were told the municipal corporation would do mitigation work.

She is also concerned about the quality of water.

“The two buckets used by the attendant are grossly unsanitary,” Leon said.

She remembers her childhood when the catchment area was clean and secured with a lock. Now she sees a generation at risk of illness. Rudolph Phoenix, who lives in proximity to the catchment area, said he no longer drinks the water because of the condition of the chlorine house.

Sixty-seven-year-old Shirley Leon is among those concerned about the quality of water available at St Mary Municipal Corporation’s water catchment at Enfield. (Photo: Ingrid Henry)

When contacted, Member of Parliament for St Mary South Eastern Christopher Brown confirmed that the municipal corporation’s catchment is one of two water sources at Enfield. He said there is also a supply from the National Water Commission (NWC).

“The municipal one is failing. The quality of water is very bad and it requires a collaborative effort with all stakeholders — the NWC, the mayor, the CEO, and the councillor,” the MP said.

— Ingrid Henry