Mount Industry thirsts for water

Karen Sudu, Gleaner Writer

MOUNT INDUSTRY, St Catherine: PHYLIZETA GRANT has never played cricket on any of the known pitches in Jamaica. However, she hit a timely run down to mid-on on September 15, 2010, on the Mount Industry grounds, which took her to 70 not out. It was a score she celebrated, as if she had reached an unbeaten century.

In fact, for her, making those runs would have been a more fulfilling experience, had it not been for the ripple effect of the many trips to and from the Duck Hole spring to get water for domestic use, throughout her innings.

"Me use to carry bucket pan me head, but me can't manage bucket again; me have to carry de jug and de bottle because me get old and me have pressure and sugar and all that," she laughed, as she sauntered cautiously down the jagged hill leading to the spring, with two gallon plastic bottles, one in each hand.

On reaching her destination, she carefully positioned herself on a stone.

"Me can't stand up like the younger ones, me have to sit and catch me water. As a matter of fact, de young people want dem pipe, time civilise now, dem nah come ina no gully fe no water," the vivacious mother of seven joked.

Without piped water

Apparently, living in a community without piped water has not in any way decreased the value the senior places on her hometown. However, she believes that the time has come to witness even a trickle from a pipe in her yard.

"Lord me suffer long and me can't manage the carrying of water any more. Me build me house up the top there and me not going anywhere, so I would love to see water running out of pipe up here before I die. That is my only wish right now," the senior beseeched.

But it's not only the community's elderly who dreams of seeing even a drip from a pipe in their homes. A frustrated mother of six, in her forties, Eileen Morrison also yearns for the occasion, or even an alternative.

"Me wish me coulda get even a tank, and then we get house-to-house water; that woulda help we very, very much," she sighed seemingly feeling her prospect is unfeasible.

Morrison told The Gleaner how life has become increasingly arduous without piped water.

"Most time we have to go to the spring for water to do everything, including washing. Sometimes when rain fall I can't wash, cause I can't go for the water, for down there 'sipple', and I can't go down there with the clothes cause it hard to come back up, so it's very, very hard," she lamented.

The children are not excluded from the gruelling task. It's a routine for many to make daily rounds to the spring every morning before school.

"I have to go down to Duck Hole spring catch water in bottles, then bathe and come up to go to school," a 10-year-old student of Mount Industry told The Gleaner.

Life without piped water is not a new phenomenon for the people of the north east St Catherine community.

Hard struggle

Roojae Kirlew, president, Mount Industry Youth Club, as well as the civic association admits that it has been a long hard struggle for citizens like Grant.

"The small catchment cannot do for all the community members, so they use the springs and it's really, really terrible because the springs are usually deep, deep down in the gullies. It's really very difficult, especially for the seniors," Kirlew explained.

Now, there is a glimmer of hope, as the youth club has forged dialogue with Gregory Mair, member of parliament, as they seek to develop a system, to make the precious commodity easily accessible.

"We are actually looking at a water project but the area is deep, deep down in the gullies and to build a catchment and to get the piping, and to build another catchment way up top is gonna be costly," Kirlew, also principal of Cassava River Infant and Primary School, said.

However, Mair told The Gleaner that cost is not an impeding factor.

"Usually the problem in these small projects is not funding, it's community organisation that needs to get the proposal and so on together, and once that is sorted out, I will make funds available," the north east St Catherine MP said.