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10 STINKING YEARS : the shame of North Street

Published:Friday | November 11, 2016 | 12:00 AM
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Norman Grindley
This November 11, 2016 photo indicates that North Street will continue to be a sewage-soaked wreck for many years to come.
Andrew Smith
Yuck! A sewage-swamped backyard in Central Kingston, November 8, 2006.
Ricardo Makyn
A cop whizzes past a leaking manhole on February 23, 2015.
Andrew Smith
Sewage and burning debris on North Street on November 8, 2006.
Norman Grindley
Discarded household appliances and other debris are placed in the middle of North Street where sewage spews on March 18, 2016.
Norman Grindley
A motorist drives past this discarded fridge and overflowing manhole on North Street on June 12, 2015.
Errol Crosby
Nasty North Street on April 29, 2016.
Andrew Smith
Motorists engage in a fiery protest in blocking North Street because of a sewage catastrophe.
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The campaign for power in the local government elections is in full swing, and even Friday political activists shamelessly walked by pools of sewage in central Kingston in the hunt for votes.

North Street, in the vicinity of St George's College and not too far from Kingston College, has metamorphosed into a cocktail of sewage and chicken offal bubbling from crumbling manholes and clogged pipes. Old refrigerators, washing machines and deep freezes - and just about everything else discarded from homes - have been placed in the middle of the road, crude markers for this fountain of filth.

Today, The Gleaner chronicles 10 stinking years on North Street, a key thoroughfare linking the western and eastern sections of the capital, Kingston. Sewage has been flooding people's yards and causing a hazard for commuters and business people.

The Kingston and St Andrew Corporation, the National Water Commission, and the National Works Agency have stood by and allowed the road to be eroded with stagnant water. Local government at work?