Don’t be mean with water, MoBay mayor urges St James residents

WESTERN BUREAU:

MONTEGO BAY Mayor Homer Davis is calling on residents of St James not to selfishly deprive others of water when the commodity is trucked to their communities, as an adequate supply of water is needed for proper sanitation to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Davis made the appeal while addressing last Thursday’s monthly sitting of the St James Municipal Corporation (StJMC), where he announced that the Ministry of Local Government has allocated approximately $5 million for the trucking of water to various communities in the parish.

“At this time, the question of water is a big challenge because one of the ways to fight this coronavirus (COVID-19) is regular handwashing and general hygiene, cleaning and sanitising, and most of these activities require water,” said Davis. “So I will encourage councillors to make sure that everyone who is in need of this precious commodity receives their fair share.

“What has been happening is that persons are being quite unreasonable in their demands for water. They’re being unreasonable in that you will go to one person’s gate and they have five or six drums and they want all of them to be filled, while somebody next door needs one drum of water, and that sometimes ends up being a big issue,” continued Davis.

“Persons need to be reasonable and understand that they alone can’t be the recipient of water,” added the mayor.

In January, the StJMC said it would be seeking dialogue with the National Water Commission to determine what remedial action would be taken to supply water to rural communities in the parish during a planned two-week water restriction.

That announcement was made prior to the outbreak of the worldwide COVID-19 spread, which has since resulted in 145 confirmed infections and five deaths locally. But while proper handwashing has been emphasised as a necessary preventive measure against the spread of the virus, access to clean water has been a challenge in areas such as Portland Cottage, Clarendon.

In February, Davis, who is also chairman of the Rural Water Supply Limited, said that 17 water-supply systems are being undertaken by the organisation. These include the development of a water system in Hurlock and the procurement of pipes for a water project in Maroon Town and Tangle River, all in St James.