It's parched times for the Negro River which traverses the Moore Town, Seaman's Valley and Windsor communities. In these days of searing temperatures, the bed of the river is mostly sand and stones. - Carlington Wilmot /Freelance Photographer RIVERS ARE not proving to be a viable alternative to the water problems in parts of Portland. Figures from the Meteorological Service are showing that, between January and February this year, the average mean rainfall for Portland plummeted from 657mm to 170mm. So the rivers, too, are suffering from desiccation.
Indeed, when The Gleaner visited East Portland last week, the bed of the Negro River (a tributary of the Rio Grande River), which serves three Portland communities, had more sand and gravel, than water. A quick glance at that waterway also revealed there were pools of stagnant, instead of running water at most sections of the Negro River (also popularly known as Wild Cane River), while the river bed looked parched.
In search of urgent and improved water solutions, the Maroon Council of Moore Town approached the Ridge to Reef project for better water solutions. The Council proposed an improved way of harnessing water from Bizzi Spring in the area and setting up a more expansive water distribution system from that source.
Ridge to Reef (R2R) is a five-year US$6 million initiative between the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Jamaican Government, aimed at addressing the degradation of watersheds in Jamaica by improving the management of natural resources in targeted watershed areas. In January, R2R approved funding for the Moore Town Water Improvement Project to the tune of $8,000,000. Work under that project began in February.
"We are hoping to have the project completed in mid-April," disclosed Colonel Wallace Sterling, head of the Moore Town Maroons. "The people of the community are taking turns, giving their labour free to upgrade the existing entombment at Bizzi Spring, also known as the Annis River. In addition, we are laying water mains along the roadway," the Colonel explained. "Some 143 lengths of pipe were needed to take water down to the road from the entombed spring."
Armed with shovels, and with beads of sweat trickling down his forehead as he filled a trench excavated by the work team on the water project, Colonel Sterling further outlined the scope of the project:
"We have laid a new four-inch wide feed line from the Spring to the main road at Seaman's Valley and we are also putting in a new three-inch pipe from Seaman's Valley into Moore Town and its immediate surroundings."
The co-ordinators of R2R are visibly impressed by the unity among those involved in the programme.
"The great zeal shown by the community in seeking funding, getting the project started and following through with its implementation has given us every reason to believe they will work for the sustainability of the programme," commented Leo Douglas, project assistant with R2R. "It's not very often that we see communities taking their own measures to remedy the water problems facing them."
But, while Moore Town is well on the way of sorting out some of its water needs, some other Portland communities are not as fortunate. In fact, the newly established Drought Management Unit in the Water Ministry has singled out Portland as among the three parishes that need priority attention.
Areas like Black Hill, Rodney Hall, Skibo, and Mount Hermon, which depend on entombed springs for water, are having difficulties attending to their domestic needs, as the springs are barely putting out enough water.
Shirley Castle and Bybrook are also facing waterless woes.
In a bid to help the affected communities cope, the Parish Council, which currently has no functional water truck, has turned to the Drought Management Unit (DMU) for help.
Bradley Barrett, Superintendent of Roads and Works, says the Rapid Response Unit trucks of the DMU, have been trucking water to the affected communities.
- E.J-K.
