OUR to keep eye on Rhyne Park water woes

WESTERN BUREAU:

THE OFFICE of Utilities Regulation (OUR) has promised to do follow-up work in addressing the years-long vexing issue of sustained water supply for residents of Rhyne Park, St James, who have expressed concern that some anticipated upcoming developments in the community could further restrict the precious commodity.

Ansord Hewitt, the OUR’s director general, gave the assurance on Thursday evening while addressing the organisation’s inaugural Western Focus stakeholder meeting, which was held virtually to address concerns in western Jamaica and to provide an update on the island’s utilities sector.

“We are currently looking into complaints from the Rhyne Park Citizens’ Association Benevolent Society and the White Hall Phase 2 community in St James, and have actually started dialogue with the National Water Commission (NWC) on this matter. Our Consumer Affairs Unit will follow up on communicating with the residents,” said Hewitt.

“As for Rhyne Park, suffice it to say that the NWC has assured the OUR that the new developments coming on stream should not impact your water supply. They have also indicated that the commissioning of three storage tanks and the upgrading of the pumping infrastructure will result in a reliable water supply to Rhyne Park,” Hewitt added.

The assurance was given even as Rhyne Park resident Kevin Davis voiced frustration at the lack of consistent water supply in the community.

“What we have been hearing for more than a decade now is that they keep buying new pumps. I have been living here (Rhyne Park) for 14 years and, in that time, two or three pumps have been installed, all in a move to improve the supply so as to get the tanks filled, and it has not been done,” Davis told the meeting.

“The challenge we have is that there are some massive tanks ... that have been sitting on a hill for over a decade that can be used to alleviate the challenge, in that, if they fill them, they can gravity-feed the water to the community. But, for some reason, the tanks have not been commissioned, and the community is going through hell for it,” Davis added. “We do not get water on Monday and Friday, and that is how it has been for maybe over a decade now, in terms of the regulated supply.”

Started in 2012

The Rhyne Park residents and the NWC have been at loggerheads over the water situation from as far back as 2013, with the residents having given ultimatums for the water utility company to speedily address the matter. At that time, the residents said that Rhyne Park had been enjoying good water supply for five years until July 2012.

Adding to the residents’ woes, Rhyne Park is one of several communities in St James, along with others in Trelawny and St Ann, which have been impacted by the lowered capacity of the Martha Brae Treatment Plant in Trelawny. In February of this year, it was announced that the plant should be back up to its full daily capacity of providing 11 million gallons of water by June.

Rhyne Park is the subject of an $8.4 billion housing development project by the Housing Agency of Jamaica and the China-based Henan Fifth Construction Group Company Limited, with the aim of building 754 houses in the area. Ground was broken for the project in 2019, with a completion timeline of three years.

In the meantime, Herman Fagan, the NWC’s regional manager for St James and Trelawny, told Thursday’s meeting that electromechanical upgrades need to be done to Rhyne Park’s water-storage facilities, in order to refill the 800,000-gallon storage facility as Davis had suggested.

“That procurement process is actually in train. So, once that is done, we will have enough pumping power to ensure that those tanks are replenished,” said Fagan.

He said that, currently, the demand exceeds supply but, once the upgrades are done, the community should be adequately serviced.

christopher.thomas@gleanerjm.com