Sligoville communities to get water ease

Stung by criticisms from residents in Sligoville, about the lack of piped water in their community, the National Water Commission (NWC) declared that they have embarked on a programme to improve reliability across all water delivery systems in the affected St Catherine communities in the new year.

The water agency was responding to a Gleaner lead story published on Monday, December 30, 2019 with headline: ‘Water misery in Sligoville’.

“The plan is to procure new pumps to be installed as standby units for the Sligoville number one, two, three and four booster stations,” read a release from the NWC.

The NWC will also install a 3,000-gallon capacity storage tank at Sligoville Square to supply Cedar Valley and its environs.

In addition, the NWC said that a number of meetings have been held with Member of Parliament Natalie Neita to “discuss all the issues and solutions being applied by the NWC”, and the regularisation of consumers in areas where water is supplied but arrangements are not formalised on the NWC’s system.

Residents of Mary’s Village, a small enclave just off Sligoville proper, vented their frustration. They complained of being hopelessly tired of bathing in pans.

The area is among several other rural areas that have seen only a trickle of piped water, as the infrastructure is either non-existent or poorly maintained, making it impossible to regularly supply water to the residents.

Sligoville is supplied with approximately 500,000 gallons of water per day from the Bybrook/Tulloch Spring system on a regulated basis, through a series of four relift stations.

On a good day, some communities receive water 24 hours per day, while others are served once per week, as a minimum situation of service delivery.

“The article highlighted one community, Mary’s Village, which, by virtue of the community’s location, receives water once per week, on Saturdays, which was the case on December 21, 2019.

“We are cognisant that a once a week supply of water to any community is not the ideal situation; however, this will be improved by our current efforts as well as by consumers becoming regularised customers,” the NWC said.

The NWC’s hours of service for the various communities listed below in Sligoville, shows that communities like Pleasant Hill receive water 24 hours per day, while others such as Keith Hall, Bottom Jackson, Binns Close receive intermittently daily supply for 20 hours except on Fridays.

Windover and sections of Top Jackson receive water intermittently daily (16 hours) except on Fridays, and Top and Bottom Kensington, sections of Top Jackson, Long Hill, Cedar Village, Stanberry Grove, Top Mary’s Village, James Mountain, Sligoville Main Road all receive water one day per week.