Health inspectors to tighten monitoring of water-trucking operations
Published:Friday | June 10, 2022 | 12:13 AM
WESTERN BUREAU:
Private and public contractors in Westmoreland who distribute water by way of trucking will now be required to have a food handler’s permits.
That decision, according to the Westmoreland Public Health Services, is to become operational by the end of June, following public consultation with stakeholders in a town hall meeting set for June 14.
Amid reports that unpalatable water is being distributed by truckers, Steve Morris, the parish’s chief public health inspector, said that the health department is proposing to regulate how the commodity is trucked in the parish, using the Public Health Food Handling Regulation, which places water in the general definition of food.
Morris told Thursday’s general monthly meeting of the Westmoreland Municipal Corporation that the health department detected water of substandard quality being trucked to consumers during the all-island industrial strike action taken by unionised workers at the National Water Commission last month.
He said that a meeting is being scheduled with truckers to discuss the way forward.
“We are inviting water truckers and other stakeholders to the meeting, where we’re going to outline exactly how we are going to put that proposal into effect,” the public health inspector said.
“We’re asking you to attend this meeting to get sensitised because this is something that we’re going to be using the law to guide.”