MANDEVILLE, Manchester –– Against the backdrop of the majority of his constituency being without potable water and relying on rainwater harvesting, Member of Parliament for Manchester Southern Peter Bunting is reminding residents to properly cover and secure their catchment tanks.

“Most of south Manchester doesn’t have piped, potable water from a central supply, so rainwater conservation is a very popular form of providing domestic water [and] measures have to be taken to cover the tanks,” Bunting told the Jamaica Observer in Roxborough, Manchester.

Down the years there have been numerous cases of people drowning after falling into tanks across the parish, and Bunting warned that, “covering is absolutely necessary — even in terms of improving the quality of the water that is stored there”.

His comments come amid his call for the Jamaica National Heritage Trust, which has overarching responsibility for the protection and preservation of historic sites such as Roxborough, to expand its scope of work to secure and cover a water tank at the birthplace of Norman Manley.

According to Bunting, Jamaicans also need to be encouraged to take a personal responsibility to secure their tanks for health and safety purposes.

Member of Parliament for Manchester Southern Peter Bunting speaking with journalists on Saturday in Roxborough, Manchester. (Photo: Kasey Williams)

“We need a continuous public health department education drive to help people understand how to properly filter and treat water that is collected by rainwater and conservation that people rely on for domestic purposes,” said Bunting, who also told the Observer that he has lobbied for two projects to improve the supply of potable water to residents in his constituency.

“I spoke with the minister [with responsibility for water Matthew Samuda], and I wrote to the National Water Commission (NWC) about upgrading the Spring Grove line. And also, there was an old concrete, asbestos line from Pusey Hill to Cross Keys that had long deteriorated, and I understand that both are to be…replaced, because there is no rehabilitation for the old concrete, asbestos pipelines,” he said.

“Like the Greater Mandeville supply upgrade, these things seem to progress at a glacial pace — and even when there are improvements, it doesn’t keep pace with the growth in the population and the expanding housing stock,” added Bunting.

He said some homeowners are now feeling the effects of building in subdivisions where there is no potable water.

“I have a lot of complaints from even returning residents that they buy lots in developments where they see provisions made for water, they see fire hydrants, and they assume that when they build their house that they will have an NWC supply. And then they are in for a rude shock, and then they come to the MP, and complain to the MP, when I [actually] came and found them there. These developments were done years ago, and they were also private developments — not developments by any government,” added Bunting.