Jambos Pond will soon be H2OK - Deep rural community to receive potable water supply

Karen Sudu, Gleaner Writer

JAMBOS POND, St Catherine:

Sited approximately 2,500 feet above sea level in the hills of north-east St Catherine, Jambos Pond, near Glengoffe, is arguably the highest point in the parish.

Whether on foot, by motor vehicle or even on a donkey, the small farming community is extremely difficult to access, due to its position.

Nevertheless, it is home to about 500 Jamaicans who are anxiously awaiting the completion of a water-supply project.

It is a development Roosevelt Lawrence, president, Glengoffe Community Develop-ment Committee Benevolent Society (GCDCBS), said has been long overdue.

"The citizens of Jambos Pond haven't any potable water in that area, and they have been suffering and struggling for years, so the Glengoffe CDC (Community Development Community) saw the dire need for it and made application to the Environmental Foundation of Jamaica (EFJ) and they accepted our proposal," Lawrence explained to The Gleaner recently.

The EFJ is spending $1.7 million to help to develop a spring for the community's domestic-water supply, while the community is required to supply the labour.

Derrick Gayle, EFJ's project appraisal and monitoring consultant, says the agency targets projects in deep, rural communities where access to potable water is almost unfeasible due to location, cost and other factors.

"The project activities include construction of a 22,000-gallon entombment at the source from which the water will be pumped 400 feet to another 20,000 gallon storage and distribution tank. From here, it will flow by gravity to approximately 400 households in Jambos Pond," Gayle explained to The Gleaner as he and Lawrence examined construction of the facility.

For now, though, persons like Ferron Bailey, a resident for more than 20 years, have to continue to travel about a mile to the nearest spring, or catch water from the roof of their house when it rains.

"I feeling pretty good, and is a good thing they doing for the area really need help. We need the water," Bailey, a cultivator since childhood days, told The Gleaner.

The Jambos Pond project is one of three undertaken by the EFJ in St Catherine. The others are in Ginger Ridge and Williamsfield.